Center

New way to fight piracy

By Wu Jiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-07-20 08:51

Photos of bulldozers crushing huge piles of confiscated pirated discs are a frequent sight in the Chinese media.

But Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province, is trying a different approach: Sellers of illegal discs can exchange three pirated discs for one legal one.

More than 120,000 pirated video and software discs have been handed in since the project was launched last week.

"The pirated discs will be sent to legal disc producers in Guangdong, where they will be re-cycled. It is expected that more discs will be handed in the coming days," said Du Kailin, general manager of the Nanjing-based Jiangsu Zhongyi Video Products Exhibition and Sales Centre, who initiated the project.

The 40-plus legal disc sellers in Du's centre used to suffer from piracy when the centre was opened last August, according to Du, explaining why he has invested "several million" yuan to fund the project.

After investigating the piracy market, Du found that sellers of pirated products suffer from very narrow profit margins. But they stay away from legal business because they are not familiar with producers of copyrighted products and also have difficulty getting rid of their huge stocks of pirated discs.

Learning this, Du hit upon the idea of linking illegal disc sellers with legal disc producers in Guangdong, with whom he has long-term business partnerships.

Persuading illegal disc sellers to co-operate with him was not easy. With support from local authorities, Du has held more than 30 meetings with illegal disc sellers since last December, informing them of government policies and measures to curb piracy, and showing them the potential profits from selling copyrighted products.

Du's effort paid off this May as eight pirated disc sellers agreed to go with him on a trip to Guangdong to become more familiar with the business process.