Private audio and video enterprises in Guangdong Province have recently formed an alliance to intensify their efforts to combat rampant piracy.

Late last month, more than 60 private audio and video enterprises announced the establishment of a joint distribution chamber.

"One of the commitments of the chamber is to help the private audio and video companies to protect the intellectual property rights of their music products better," said Zhu Lei, vice-chairman of the chamber.

Zhu told China Daily that the chamber has established an anti-piracy office and had a representative lawyer to deal with copyright disputes aroused by the pirate activities.

Piracy has long been a growing pain to the fledgling audio and video industry in the country.

China saw rapid development in the audio-visual industry between the 1980s and early 1990s, with an annual sales volume of more than 10 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion).

But official statistics show that in the period since 1996 Chinese customs have confiscated 300 million bootleg CDs.

At present, the wholesale volume of audio products in Guangdong accounts for 70 per cent of the country's total.

Its CD output makes up more than 50 per cent of China's total.

But the figure doesn't necessarily mean that the audio and video industry is making easy money.

"Guangdong is a coastal city, thus hundreds of millions of bootleg CDs have made their way into the province across the borders," said Zhu.

As the province gradually becomes a centre for making, copying, packing and distributing audio products in China, the industry has also fallen victim to piracy.

"For example, if we earn 1 yuan (US$12 cents) out of the music we introduced, those producers and sellers of pirate audio-visual products can cash in 7 to 8 yuan (84-96 US cents) from the market, because they do not have to buy the copyright," said Zhu, also director of Guangzhou Impact Audio and Video Co Ltd.

Zhu's company has just signed an agreement with world-leading music company Universal Music Limited to introduce more authorized music to Chinese audiences.

Zhu said he still worries that piracy might threaten sales of his music products.

According to the agreement signed at the end of last month, Zhu's company will be authorized to distribute Decca and Philips music, two world-famous Universal music brands.

For the first phase of the co-operation, the Guangzhou-based firm will invest about 10 million yuan (US$1.2 million) introducing the music of renowned Norwegian duo "Secret Garden" to Chinese fans, said Zhu.

"Chinese music fans have had to listen to pirated discs of Secret Garden for years and now we expect to introduce them to the real thing," said Zhu.

The company has been one of the victims of piracy since it was set up in 1993, according to Zhu.

As a result, Zhu said he would rather not predict how many of the band's pirated CDs would be seen on the market in the future. "The exact loss from illegal copies for us is hard to work out," said Zhu.

Like Zhu's company, more than 80 per cent of audio and video companies based in Guangdong Province are privately owned and are suffering from piracy.

But a lack of capital and technology has meant authentic products made by the audio-visual makers have not met consumer demand in quality and variety. Thus some producers have also started pirating copies themselves.

"Those companies producing pirate CDs in return have harmed their own credibility while hurting their counterparts in the market," said Zhu.

Statistics from the Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Culture show that there are currently about 7,000 shops in the province that sell audio-visual products, of which nearly half are small-scale shops.

To attract customers and survive in the market, many sellers have also introduced fake CDs.

Zhu called on all audio and video enterprises to make joint efforts against piracy.

He said private audio and video enterprises should make more effort to develop high-quality products.

"If we manufacture more products with high technology, then bootleg audio and video producers and sellers will find fewer opportunities to copy our products," said Zhu.

On the other hand, Zhu said people's awareness about buying these discs and videos was important in trying to protect such intellectual property rights.

"The public awareness of protecting the IPR of audio-visual products is vital for the campaign to combat piracy, because they are the main target consumers of illegal products," said Zhu.

By September 20, police in Guangzhou had confiscated 36,000 illegally copied discs and videos and closed down 49 stores which produced and sold them.

China Audio and Video Association, together with four other cultural associations based in Guangdong Province, made an announcement in Guangzhou at the end of September to crack down.

The five associations vowed not to produce or sell any pirate CDs, and will work with the government to further regulate the cultural product market.

The announcement was made in Guangzhou during the China International Exposition of Audio-Visual Industry held late last month. Organized by the Ministry of Culture and the Guangdong Provincial Government, the exposition displayed China's achievements in developing its audio-visual industry and in protecting intellectual property rights.

A public lecture on China's Policies and Laws on Audio-Visual Products was also staged along with the exposition, in which the Chinese Government explained its policies and laws concerning the production, circulation, import and export of audio-visual products.

In his letter to the exposition, Tang Jianquan, a local economist, said there should be more public campaigns against copies of audio and video products.

Student Chen Siyan said schools and families should also be targeted places for such public campaigns so that children could learn about protecting intellectual property at an early age.

Dong Wengao, who calls himself a music fan, said producers should demonstrate the real value of the authentic products.

(China Daily October 22, 2004)