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HONG KONG (Reuters) - Four of the world's biggest film studios have taken their first open legal action against video pirates in China, an attorney representing the group said on Tuesday.
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) took the action last September on behalf of The Walt Disney Co, AOL Time Warner's Warner Bros, Vivendi Universal and News Corp's Twentieth Century Fox, said MPA regional legal counsel Mark Day.
Two actions in Beijing have since been settled, while verdicts on another series of suits in Shanghai are expected in the next one to two weeks, he said.
"This is the first time our member companies have litigated in relation to anti-piracy in their own name in China," he said.
Warner and Universal settled their Beijing-based complaints against one retailer and two factories this spring, Day said.
Under that settlement, the defendants paid a collective $30,200 in damages, apologized and agreed to destroy all their stock of the illegally copied materials.
They also agreed not to copy illegally any MPA member titles in the future, and were required to give the MPA the names of the parties that placed the illegal replication orders.
The set of cases in Shanghai are still pending, and involve actions by Disney, Universal and Fox against three local retailers.
A hearing was held in those cases last week with a mediation settlement afterwards. But Day said a settlement was unlikely, with the plaintiffs seeking 1.2 million yuan and other terms similar to those in the Beijing cases.
According to the Motion Picture Association of America's web site, piracy costs the U.S. motion picture industry more than $3 billion each year in lost revenue worldwide.
China is believed to be one of the worst offenders, with an estimated $168 million in lost sales in 2002 due to motion picture piracy, according to the International Intellectual Property Alliance.
The group estimated that 90 percent of foreign motion picture materials sold in China are pirated.
Day said he expected a verdict on the Shanghai cases in the next one to two weeks.
He said the cases were the first in which the studios openly sought damages in court under an amended version of China's copyright law that went into effect in October 2001.
"These are the first test cases, and our objective is to find out whether or not there's sufficient deterrence available under the amendments to the copyright law," he said. "However, this is no substitute for criminal action."
The Motion Picture Association (MPA) took the action last September on behalf of The Walt Disney Co, AOL Time Warner's Warner Bros, Vivendi Universal and News Corp's Twentieth Century Fox, said MPA regional legal counsel Mark Day.
Two actions in Beijing have since been settled, while verdicts on another series of suits in Shanghai are expected in the next one to two weeks, he said.
"This is the first time our member companies have litigated in relation to anti-piracy in their own name in China," he said.
Warner and Universal settled their Beijing-based complaints against one retailer and two factories this spring, Day said.
Under that settlement, the defendants paid a collective $30,200 in damages, apologized and agreed to destroy all their stock of the illegally copied materials.
They also agreed not to copy illegally any MPA member titles in the future, and were required to give the MPA the names of the parties that placed the illegal replication orders.
The set of cases in Shanghai are still pending, and involve actions by Disney, Universal and Fox against three local retailers.
A hearing was held in those cases last week with a mediation settlement afterwards. But Day said a settlement was unlikely, with the plaintiffs seeking 1.2 million yuan and other terms similar to those in the Beijing cases.
According to the Motion Picture Association of America's web site, piracy costs the U.S. motion picture industry more than $3 billion each year in lost revenue worldwide.
China is believed to be one of the worst offenders, with an estimated $168 million in lost sales in 2002 due to motion picture piracy, according to the International Intellectual Property Alliance.
The group estimated that 90 percent of foreign motion picture materials sold in China are pirated.
Day said he expected a verdict on the Shanghai cases in the next one to two weeks.
He said the cases were the first in which the studios openly sought damages in court under an amended version of China's copyright law that went into effect in October 2001.
"These are the first test cases, and our objective is to find out whether or not there's sufficient deterrence available under the amendments to the copyright law," he said. "However, this is no substitute for criminal action."
