bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Stella Lee

COPYRIGHT pirates have breached the film industry's latest line of defence - high technology digital video discs (DVDs) - and are selling unreleased Hollywood blockbusters from Mongkok stalls.

 The first batches of suspected pirated DVDs have been found selling for $280, $40 more than an authentic copy of the latest technological product.

 Movie industry professionals, who say buyers speculate on the rare discs, expect pirates to flood into the new DVD market, while authorities are still struggling to control video compact disc piracy.

 Police and Customs officers have seized no pirated DVDs, but Motion Picture Industry Association chief executive Woody Tsung Wan-chi said the fakes were already here.

 'DVDs of Die Hard 3 have been found in some Mongkok shopping malls,' Mr Tsung said.

 The United States copyright owner had not released discs of the movie, but they were available for $280, he said. The case had been reported to the Customs and Excise Department.

 It is believed the poor-quality DVDs were smuggled from Malaysia.

 DVD manufacturers have developed mechanisms to protect the new technology, but a major security feature built into DVD players was broken shortly after they were introduced to Hong Kong last year.

 DVD players are coded into six geographical regions, confining the discs they can play to those produced in the same zone. The design aimed to stop smugglers from selling movies to overseas markets before they screen in cinemas there.

 But Motion Picture Industry Association anti-piracy operation director Sam Ho Wai-hung said 'all-zone' DVD players were in Hong Kong a year ago, shortly after the new product was launched.

 Alarm over the speed of copyright pirates' intrusion into the market heightened when a DVD production line was among the record $650 million haul of pirated discs and manufacturing equipment seized last Monday.

 The production equipment, worth more than $10 million, was new and still being tested when it was seized.

 Mr Ho expected pirates to shadow the latest technology.

 'We expect the proportion of shares of DVDs and CDs in the market worldwide to be 30 per cent to 70 per cent in two years' time. The present proportion is just one to 99 per cent,' he said.

 Commissioner of Customs and Excise Lawrence Li Shu-fai admitted that while a new copyright law would require all compact discs to be imprinted with a code identifying the maker, there were chances that pirates would forge the codes.



Pirates break hi-tech disc code