The Los Angeles-based Motion Picture Association (MPA) offered its appreciation yesterday to the Taiwan authorities for their help in cracking down on movie piracy in Taiwan.
At a press conference held jointly with Taiwan's private Foundation for the Protection of Film and Video Works (FVWP) in Taipei, Frank Rittman, vice president of the MPA Asia-Pacific operations based in Singapore, said the MPA appreciates Taiwan's assistance and support for anti-piracy enforcement initiatives aimed at reducing movie piracy in Taiwan.
However, he pointed out that it is worthy of close attention that an increasing number of people and companies in Taiwan have burned pirated movies onto optical discs with CD-R or DVD-R burners.
Burner labs can contain dozens of burners capable of producing millions of pirated CD-Rs or DVD-Rs per year, Rittman said, adding that in 2004, 1,755 optical disc burners were seized in FVWP/MPA operations in Taiwan, representing 56 percent of total MPA seizures in the Asia-Pacific region.
Rittman did not elaborate on development of FVWP/MPA operations in China, considered a haven for piracy of all intellectual property goods.
At the press conference, FVWP and MPA officials released updated results of anti-piracy enforcement operations coordinated with the Intellectual Property Office under the Ministry of Economic Affairs targeting video rental shops in Taiwan that illegally manufacture and rent pirated movies.
The operations, which began Jan. 4, comprised 818 shop inspections and 34 raids and have netted seizures of 243,475 pirated CD-Rs and DVD-Rs, 127 optical disc burners and have resulted in the arrest of 48 people, according to MPA officials.
The program builds upon recent undertakings by Taiwan's Government Information Office and the Intellectual Property Office to ensure that shops in Taiwan are not engaged in piracy.
Since last December, the Intellectual Property Office has urged rental shop owners to respect copyrights and refrain from selling or renting pirated copies, said Hank Kuo, executive director of the FVWP.
He reiterated that anti-piracy operations will go on relentlessly.
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