MPA, student fest team for anti-piracy message

January 17, 2007 The Beijing Student Film Festival and the Motion Picture Assn. are teaming for a Chinese anti-piracy film contest, the MPA announced Tuesday. MPA research shows that rampant movie piracy in China cost Chinese and overseas filmmakers a potential $2.7 billion in lost consumer spending on movie tickets and legal home entertainment products in 2005. Despite increased MPA anti-piracy efforts in China and regular government crackdowns on illegal DVD makers and sellers -- including stiffer penalties for pirates -- pirated, DVD copies of most first-run films from around the world can be bought on the streets of the capital for as little as $1 without fear of recrimination.

Subscribe to the Hollywood Reporter and see the entertainment industry from its best angle: the inside looking out. Complete access to real-time news and exclusive analysis that goes behind the scenes from film to television, home video to digital media.

   Subscribe now.