Studios Back Innovative Anti-Piracy Plan for China

By Katey Rich

Transformers and Shrek the Third were the first DVDs released in China under the new plan.

After years of struggling against fleet-footed DVD pirates in China, three major Hollywood studios are taking a huge step to fight back. Warner, Paramount and DreamWorks have joined under the label CAV Warner Home Entertainment to distribute their product on DVD in China as little as two months after the U.S. release, and for the crazy-low price of $2.95. The idea is to compete with the cheapie DVD knockoffs that show up on the streets hours after a movie first screens-- they're prevalent in China, but you can find pretty much anything you want on the streets of Chinatown here in New York.

Piracy is such a hard issue to get a hold on, with such a nebulous network of pirates globally and content that's difficult to put a lid on. Still, this step seems like the most logical one I've heard of in a long time, indicating a willingness on the part of the major studios to think creatively about solutions rather than stamping down their foot and insisting "This is illegal, and it must stop!" The fact is that DVDs are insanely cheap to produce, and are sold at a huge markup at $20 or more in the U.S. The studios obviously can't sell all of their titles for $3, but for so many of these titles that's $3 they simply weren't going to get otherwise. Not that many people are itching to shell out $20 for a copy of Catch and Release, I promise.

This move probably won't stop the flow of pirated content coming out of China, but it may curb the popularity of those copied DVDs in the country. Variety reports that an astonishing 90% of DVDs in China are pirated, losing Hollywood an estimated $244 million each year. That's the budget of Transformers 2, people! But seriously, what Hollywood is fighting against is not just some wily criminals, but an entire cultural state of mind, in which pirated DVDs are not just acceptable but preferred. They need to be winning hearts and minds over there, convincing Chinese consumers that a higher-quality print with special features and whatnot is worth the extra money. Now, with the price difference only a few dollars, that argument will probably be a lot easier to make.