Shanghai Daily news

It is no mere coincidence that the current crackdown against pirated DVDs comes just as the Shanghai Film Festival is about to open, bringing in a flood of international movie industry artists and executives concerned about protecting their intellectual property.
Lan Yiming, vice director of the General Team of Culture Inspection, told Shanghai Daily yesterday that the campaign was specifically designed to sweep the streets of illegal video products before the start of the film fest, which runs from June 11 to 19 and features 200 movies.
"While we are always working to find and punish DVD pirates, this campaign focuses on stores selling counterfeit movies around cinemas showing festival films," Lan said. "We don't want directors and actors from abroad to see that consumers can pick up a pirated copy of their film on many street corners."
Some DVD storeowners who have gone underground since the crackdown began told Shanghai Daily they believe they'll be back in business after the film festival closes. Others aren't so sure, and Lan indicated the campaign will continue.
"Of course, the crackdown against illegal film products is always on our schedule," he said.
Lan said the intensified effort began around the end of last month. Word spread quickly around the video sales community, with many illegal shops hanging up "closed for renovations" signs late last week.
Others changed their product mix to avoid running afoul of the DVD cops.
Among them is a store located below the Ka De Cafe on Jinxian Road that's popular among local DVD collectors, including many expatriates.
Yesterday, the usual selection of first-run films was missing. Instead, the shelves were packed with old and mostly unpopular movies - but only authorized versions.
"I took all the pirated DVDs off the shelves and put up the legal ones about a week ago," the storeowner said yesterday, adding that he heard about the crackdown in advance from sources he would not identify.
Customers aren't happy with his present selection, however, and business is off.
"But it's more important to survive the crisis," he said. "Now we aren't afraid of a visit by the authorities."
The storeowner said he expects to be able to bring out his popular illegal offerings after the curtain comes down on the film festival.
Penalties for selling pirated DVDs range from five to 10 times the wholesale cost of the discs confiscated.
Those who produce large quantities of knockoff movies can face up to seven years in prison.