Jake's View | Making fools of ourselves with 'Jackie Chan law'
With parallel imports legislation we effectively are using our taxes to allow foreign copyright holders to charge more than we should pay
Immigration officers extended their joint operation with police against parallel importers …
No, wrong. Let's clear up this confusion. These are parallel exporters, not parallel importers, and the reason we don't like them is that they make a nuisance of themselves at the border, not that they engage in unofficial trade.
Parallel imports is another matter entirely, a self-imposed twist of law whereby we needlessly inflict high consumer goods prices on ourselves for the benefit of foreign brand-name owners. Let's not confuse this with soap runners at the border.
Parallel import restrictions, otherwise known as the "Jackie Chan law", came about when Hong Kong film producers, faced with universal piracy of their productions across the border, decided they might be able to make at least a little money by licensing mainland distribution at very low cost.
They then found that these made-for-the-mainland recordings were coming straight back to Hong Kong and undercutting prices of their local offerings. They appealed to the customs bureau to stop them at the border, but customs said it did not have the authority. The recordings were legitimate, copyrighted products.