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To: BillyG who wrote (37783)	12/12/1998 12:34:00 PM
From: BillyG	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 50808

Pirate DVD Movies Emerge In Asia (12/11/98, 6:14 p.m. ET) By Andy Patrizio, TechWeb techweb.com Nearly two years after the introduction of DVD as a movie format, bootleggers in Asia have found a novel way to create pirated DVDs, by copying the laser-disc version of a film and pressing it onto a DVD disc. When the DVD format was being hammered out, Hollywood balked because the high-quality video picture on DVDs doesn't degrade, making them ideal for endless copying. That delayed the introduction of DVD and forced DVD makers to implement strict anti-piracy measures, such as data encryption. But bootleg DVDs have emerged in Hong Kong and Australia. At first, the pirated titles were Disney classics like Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, Fantasia, Pinocchio, and Cinderella, as well as Gone With the Wind. But more recently, a copy of Titanic has come on the market. The movies were first brought to the attention of a DVD fan site, The Digital Bits. Webmaster Bill Hunt received bootlegged copies of the movies from a friend who visited Hong Kong on business and found them openly for sale in a video store. "The store proprietor even told [his source] they are illegal copies," said Hunt. "The most amazing part is that an inspector from the Hong Kong government, who's supposed to look for this stuff, was in the store and walked right past them." The packaging on the bootlegged movies lacks the movie-studio logos. Instead, each case is stamped with the name Evervision. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) knows Evervision very well. Evervision is based in Taiwan, where copyrights to works created before 1965 are not considered valid by law. "Evervision is a company that has been engaged in selling pre-65 products, and it has been fairly active," said Ric Hirsch, senior vice president and director of worldwide anti-piracy for the MPAA. Although the works aren't protected in Taiwan, where they originate, once they leave Taiwan they infringe on copyright laws, said Hirsch. Anyone importing or selling the titles in the United States could face criminal charges. As for Evervision, Hirsch said, the MPAA is trying to prevent the company from continuing to create pirated movies. The difficulty of stamping out piracy in Asia is due to a combination of loose laws, lack of government enforcement, and lately, the economic crisis. There are more than 320 optical-disc plants in the Asia-Pacific region, some clandestine, some legitimate. Some countries, like Hong Kong, are very responsive, while others, like Malaysia, have done little to stop piracy. The temptation for DVD consumers is great, since none of the bootlegged films have been issued on DVD except Gone With the Wind. The director of Titanic, James Cameron, recently said a DVD version of the film is in the works, but no release date has been set. Disney has been reluctant to release its classic animation titles on DVD at all. Hunt implored readers of his Web page not to buy the discs, for fear of making the studios even more reticent to support DVD. The solution is two-fold, said Hirsch, requiring legal enforcement and education of the public. Consumers need to know that bootleg DVDs are not only illegal, but often of low quality. "A lot of the product is sub-quality," he said. "It's certainly not up to the standards that any of our members would hold."