China Economic Review
Charting China’s changing economic terrain · Since 1990

Warner's bold anti-piracy move

June 9, 2005

In a landmark response to movie piracy, Warner Bros Entertainment released its latest film, "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants", on DVD in China the same day it hit US theaters in a bid to beat the bootleggers and also to give movie fans a legitimate product, the Los Angeles Times reported. Although the "chick-flick" is not expected to attract a huge audience in the Mainland, the studio will be monitoring the response to the DVD to determine whether the strategy would be repeated for more high-profile releases. The studio has added irremovable Chinese subtitles and no extra features to deter bootlegged copies from finding a market outside China. According to an April report by the US trade representative, at least 90% of virtually every type of copyrighted work sold in China is fake.

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