Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) is going to be the first major Hollywood studio to distribute Blu-ray movies in China.The movie studio plans to sell only 30 movie titles on the Chinese market, with titles including Hitch, Kung Fu Hustle, Hancock and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, and the Spiderman trilogy.
The movies will be available for 205 yuan, or ~$30 each, which is a high amount considering the low income among many citizens in China.
Sony will launch the BDP-S350 Blu-ray player in China on Nov. 21, and may expand its Blu-ray product lineup later.
Warner Bros. and Disney are expected to launch Blu-ray movies in the near future, with other movie studios still weighing their options. Most studios plan to wait and see how consumers like Sony's lineup, and how the company battles piracy, before mass releasing movies.
Despite Chinese pirates already manipulating Blu-ray movies and selling counterfeit movies to consumers, there will likely be a strong push to try and legitimize the Blu-ray market in China. The pirated movies aren't Blu-ray, but are AVCHD-quality movies pirated on to DVDs.
AVCHD discs can be made using regular blank DVDs but are playable in Blu-ray players -- and movie studios are extremely concerned about AVCHD movies being pirated and sold as Blu-ray movies.The Motion Picture Association fears AVCHDs will account for as much as 10 percent of all pirated movies in China within six months, as the number continues to grow.
If Sony is able to combat pirates and convince Chinese consumers to purchase legal Blu-ray movies, then it will create local production facilities in several locations.
Assuming Sony and other movie studios are serious about releasing Blu-ray in China, they're likely going to have to reduce the cost of Blu-ray movies, or consumers will continue to pirate content.
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Windows users in China may face serious problems with Microsoft's launch of an anti-piracy tool that turns the user's desktop black if the installed software is not legal.
The Windows Genuine Advantage program turns the user's desktop black if the installed software fails a validation test. This is Microsoft's latest weapon in its war on piracy in China, where the vast majority of 200 million computer users are believed to be using fake software.
The company announced a week earlier that the anti-piracy software would be automatically installed on users' computers through a typical Internet-based updated mechanism. If a computer fails a validation test, the desktop changes to a plain black background when the computer is restarted.
Chinese Internet users have expressed fury at Microsoft's launch the anti-piracy tool.
Dong Zhengwei, 35, a Beijing lawyer, described Microsoft as the "biggest hacker in China with its intrusion into users' computer systems without their agreement or any judicial authority," as he was quoted by the China Daily newspaper.
"Microsoft's measure will cause serious functional damage to users' computers and, according to China's Criminal Law, the company can stand accused of breaching and hacking into computer systems," he was quoted as saying.
Dong also filed a complaint with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security on Sunday, accrding to the paper.
Although a few instances of screen blackout were reported on the first day of the action, Internet experts and industry insiders have expressed grave concern at the move.The China Software Industry Association (CSIA), the only software industrial organization in the country, is also planning to take action against Microsoft.
Microsoft defends the program on its website as "part of Microsoft's commitment to help protect its intellectual property and to help you avoid problems before they happen."
Microsoft on Thusday announced Global Anti-Piracy Day, a simultaneous launch of education initiatives and enforcement actions in 49 countries on six continents to combat the illegal trade of pirated and counterfeit software. The programs include intellectual property awareness campaigns, engagements with partner businesses, educational forums, local law enforcement training, and new legal actions against alleged software counterfeiters and pirates.
The Windows Genuine Advantage program turns the user's desktop black if the installed software fails a validation test. This is Microsoft's latest weapon in its war on piracy in China, where the vast majority of 200 million computer users are believed to be using fake software.
The company announced a week earlier that the anti-piracy software would be automatically installed on users' computers through a typical Internet-based updated mechanism. If a computer fails a validation test, the desktop changes to a plain black background when the computer is restarted.
Chinese Internet users have expressed fury at Microsoft's launch the anti-piracy tool.
Dong Zhengwei, 35, a Beijing lawyer, described Microsoft as the "biggest hacker in China with its intrusion into users' computer systems without their agreement or any judicial authority," as he was quoted by the China Daily newspaper.
"Microsoft's measure will cause serious functional damage to users' computers and, according to China's Criminal Law, the company can stand accused of breaching and hacking into computer systems," he was quoted as saying.
Dong also filed a complaint with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security on Sunday, accrding to the paper.
Although a few instances of screen blackout were reported on the first day of the action, Internet experts and industry insiders have expressed grave concern at the move.The China Software Industry Association (CSIA), the only software industrial organization in the country, is also planning to take action against Microsoft.
Microsoft defends the program on its website as "part of Microsoft's commitment to help protect its intellectual property and to help you avoid problems before they happen."
Microsoft on Thusday announced Global Anti-Piracy Day, a simultaneous launch of education initiatives and enforcement actions in 49 countries on six continents to combat the illegal trade of pirated and counterfeit software. The programs include intellectual property awareness campaigns, engagements with partner businesses, educational forums, local law enforcement training, and new legal actions against alleged software counterfeiters and pirates.
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