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PAINPANG.COM: "PIRATES"

catch me... if you can

"To Catch Film Pirate,

U.S., China Follow

Spy Flick to

Shanghai"

"Raid of American's Apartment

Finds Wall-to-Wall DVDs;

Box Sets of James Bond"

(By Peter Wonacott in Shanghai,

Sarah McBride in Los Angeles,

Wall Street Journal, 3-7-2005)

"Officials Track Spy Flick to Shanghai"

WSJ, 3-7-2005

In late 2001, movie-studio attorney Laura Tunberg was browsing on eBay when something caught her eye: the entire collection of James Bond movies in a box set. Her employer, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc., wasn't selling box sets at the time, but Randolph Hobson Guthrie III was—from his penthouse in Shanghai. Ms. Tunberg asked an assistant to order the collection anonymously. It soon arrived from Mr. Guthrie with an MGM logo, official-looking holograms, and text in Chinese and English.

"All our stolen artwork was on the front," recalled a surprised Ms. Tunberg. When the assistant e-mailed Mr. Guthrie asking how many James Bond collections he could provide, the reply came quickly. "I can sell you as many as you want," Mr. Guthrie wrote.

That transaction triggered a three-year investigation that pulled in the Motion Picture Association of America, a special unit of U.S. Customs and Chinese police. It marked the first time U.S. and Chinese agents worked together to dismantle a counterfeit network, one that showed manufacturing muscle and global reach. In the early hours of July 2, 2004, the joint operation culminated in a televised raid of Mr. Guthrie's apartment-turned-warehouse... mostly high-quality copies made by Chinese DVD replicators.

... Mr. Guthrie's case marks the latest twist in the U.S. government's campaign to tame the world's biggest counterfeiter, China. Though Chinese DVD pirates rarely spend time in jail, Mr. Guthrie, the scion of a wealthy Manhattan family, if convicted, faces up to 15 years for hawking his knockoff Hollywood movies overseas, mostly to Americans. Some suspect the 38-year-old heir is in store for tough treatment so Beijing can score political points with Washington.

Chinese officials would "love to be able to say their country is not responsible—it is a United States citizen," says a person who was involved in investigating Mr. Guthrie's case. "They only protect copyright when it's in their own interest."

... Looming over China's booming exports to the U.S. is a booming trade in fakes. China far outstrips any other exporter of counterfeit products, accounting for 58% of all fake goods seized in the first half of 2004, according to the latest available statistics from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

... "One of the challenges has been how to get police in China interested," says Loo Shih Yann, an attorney... . "They don't feel IPR [intellectual property rights] crime is a real crime, not in the same class as burglary or rape."

MPAA's Very Own... "CSI"

... In responding to an estimated $3.5 billion in global losses a year, Hollywood has set up one of the most sophisticated antipiracy task forces of any industry. The Motion Picture Association of America now has special laboratories to analyze DVDs, teams of investigators combing the Internet for clues and undercover operatives to assist police in surveillance and raids.

... Whether discs are legitimate DVDs or fakes, microscopic markings can distinguish their ORIGINS. "The process is very similar to the process you'd use to determine a bullet, what gun that bullet was fired from," says John Malcolm, the head of antipiracy operations at the MPAA.

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