Hong Kong Film Piracy On YouTube Amounts To $308 Million Loss

[sunnyd]

Story : http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hong-kong-film-piracy-youtube-314976

Severe copyright infringement of Hong Kong films is rife on YouTube, with pirated footage of over 200 Hong Kong films found on the world’s largest video-sharing website, amounting to an estimated loss of over HK$2.4 billion ($308 million) to the local film industry, according to the Hong Kong Motion Pictures Industry Association (MPIA). MPIA members urged YouTube and other video-sharing websites to enforce the German court ruling last Friday (April 20) to implement measures to restrict content that infringe copyright.

The recent local box office hit Love in the Buff was found to be uploaded in its entirety, directly affecting the theatrical gross of the film, a situation that the association called “extremely severe” in a statement.

The videos were taken down after a formal complaint made to YouTube by Media Asia, the copyright holder of Love in the Buff.

But YouTube did not act promptly when contacted by Media Asia to remove the illegally obtained uploaded Buff film, taking days for the removal. John Chong, producer of the film, commented in the statement that YouTube showed “an extreme lack of efficiency in the removal of the pirated videos, but was not responsible for any loss incurred due to the delay in the removal.” Previously, the website operator had immediately taken down pirated film material when contacted by the copyright holder.