Life sentence for biggest DVD pirate

A man was sentenced to life in jail Thursday for running what was described as the country's biggest ever DVD and VCD piracy operation, Reuters reported, citing state media. Lin Yuehua and 11 gang members were found guilty by a court in the Guangxi region of smuggling over 30 million bootleg discs into China between 2002 and 2005 from five foreign-based production units. The total value of the discs was said to be around US$23.9 million. The foreign country in which the discs were produced was not named, although fingers have been pointed at Vietnam as it borders Guangxi. Lin's accomplices received sentences of between two and 15 years. The US copyright industry claims piracy cost it US$2.6 billion in sales in China last year, with bootleg DVDs widely available for as little as US$1 each.