How Will Paramount Defeat China's DVD Pirates?

The movie industry has lost over $6 billion in sales every year due to film piracy worldwide, the vast majority of which is in China, where one can snatch up a copy of Harry Potter (if it be your desire) for a buck or two. In retaliation, Paramount has formed an informal coalition of media corps (along with Fox, Warner Brothers, and Time Warner) to combat the swashbuckling movie pirates of East Asia. Their battle plan? Undercut the pirates with officially sanctioned dirt cheap DVDs — as low as $1.30 to $1.60 in U.S. dollars from some studios.

Of course, media executives know this won’t be a significant source of revenue. At three bucks a disc, Paramount knows that the pirates are offering their copies for half that. But in the midst of China’s ‘bottom line’ culture (even when it runs counter to intellectual property tenets), the movie industry knows that they need to highlight the overarching issue: Price.

Pirates of East Asia image by jetalone [cc, 2.0]