The industry group representing the major Hollywood studios said on Saturday it has warned Beijing of an increasingly restless Congress and possible trade consequences if China does not do more to fight piracy. Dan Glickman said he delivered the message to heads of various government departments in Beijing this week during his first visit to China as new chief executive of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). Glickman took over the job last year from industry veteran Jack Valenti, leading a group whose members include Walt Disney Co, Time Warner's Warner Bros., Sony's Columbia Pictures and Viacom's Paramount Pictures.
"We said the US Congress ... is becoming increasingly agitated about piracy," Glickman, a former agriculture secretary under the Clinton administration, told Reuters during an interview in Shanghai.
"We said they need to do something or there would be trade related problems. There's consequences if they don't get it down."
The MPAA estimates about 95 percent of all DVDs sold in China are pirated, costing the industry $280 million last year.
It has been working with Chinese law enforcement authorities for several years to close down factories that produce pirated DVDs and stores that sell them, and has generally praised the level of co-operation it receives on specific enforcement cases.
More recently, it has also begun taking on offenders in China's relatively new court system, winning all 10 of the cases it has brought to date against various factories and stores.
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