All that means, however, is that pirates are spreading around their operations. These days, smugglers acquire their source material in one country, copy in another, produce in a third and then sell in a fourth nation. Business Software Alliance, a watchdog group, claims that 94 percent of the software sold in China is pirated -- 97 percent in Vietnam.
For all Hollywood's efforts, can it really stamp out this budding and highly lucrative market? One challenge movie studios are coming up against is a global consumer backlash. Nowadays, moviegoers are growing fickle about paying through the nose so Tom Cruise and Julia Roberts can command tens of millions for a couple of month's work.
When you ask locals and foreigners in Beijing if they feel guilty buying pirated entertainment goods, you'll hear some variation of: "Not when you consider how much money actors and rock stars get paid." Such views explain why Hollywood's so worried that appetite for pirated goods will grow among Americans and Europeans.
Whatever the driving force, piracy is an industry that's here to stay. That certainty can be seen in this quote collected by Bloomberg reporter Alice Yuan. "We have every movie," Beijing street seller Ren Yudong told her. "Any title you've read about in a magazine or seen on television, we have them. Fresh off the press."
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