Movie Studios to Pay Asian Informants for Info On Pirate DVD Facilities

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 20, 2003 - 2:48am.

Bangkok -- Reuters reports that the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is stepping up its anti-piracy efforts in the Asia-Pacific region by allotting $150,000 in rewards for informants who provide information on pirate DVD facilities. The MPAA began enlisting informants in Hong Kong last year, and will now expand the practice into India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. "The informants could be anyone, plant engineers or the wife of the guard," Michael Ellis, Asia-Pacific anti-piracy head for the MPAA, told Reuters. "We'll work with some informants over a long period. Some people are professional informants, they can make a good living out of working with us." The MPAA estimates its member studios lost $3 billion in revenue in 2002 to pirate DVDs, and $646 million in Asia. http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,57730,00.html
http://www.mpaa.org/anti-piracy/contact/index.htm