SINGAPORE - The Motion Picture Association (MPA) today launched a campaign to stamp out movie piracy in Asia, which accounted for nearly 90 percent of pirated movie DVDs seized by the US-based organisation in 2002.

The MPA is setting aside a US$150,000 (RM570,000) war chest to reward people who can provide leads to help authorities crackdown o­n factories manufacturing illegal DVDs.

Of the seven million pirated DVDs seized globally, 6.1 million or 87 percent amounting to losses of US$642 million came from Asia, the MPA said.

China was the biggest violator of movie rights with losses stemming from piracy estimated at US$168 million, followed by Japan where the losses amounted to US$110 million.

"Majority of the pirated DVDs seized in the world are replicated here in Asia and last year 87 percent of seizures worldwide were seized in Asia Pacific for pirate DVDs," said Michael Ellis, the MPA's vice-president and director for regional anti-piracy operations.

"I am quite confident when I say that Asia is piracy centre for DVD replication," he told a news conference to announce the launch of the MPA's anti-piracy campaign titled "Nothing Beats The Real Thing: Say 'No' To Piracy."

Malaysia o­n target list

The campaign is aimed at eight Asian countries - India, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines - and seeks to appeal to consumers to refrain from buying pirated DVDs.

"We are targeting these eight countries at this time because each has well-documented, rampant rates of DVD piracy, often driven by organized crime operations," Ellis said.

"Our goal is to boost awareness of the social and economic harm that piracy causes as well as to support local law enforcement efforts in raiding piracy operations and bringing DVD pirates to justice," he said.

"We will continue with the campaign until we address the problem."

The MPA has set aside US$150,000 to reward informers who can provide authorities with information to the factories producing the illegal DVDs, Ellis said.

"The reward scheme that we are here to announce today is targeted at the source...the illegal factories that are making these illegal DVDs," he said.

"It's not the be all or end all but it's our contribution to make sure we raise the awareness level that DVD piracy is starting to dig a major hole not o­nly here in Asia but also the rest of the world," Ellis said.

Rare exception

Singapore is a rare exception where authorities are mounting a successful campaign to wipe out the bootleggers but the city-state is emerging as a distribution centre for pirated DVDs to the rest of the world, the MPA said.

"Singapore indeed is o­ne of the few countries where the piracy rate has actually dropped. Last year, it dropped down to 15 percent from 18 percent in the year before," said Ellis.

"While piracy is reducing here in Singapore, we still have problems here... o­ne of the disturbing trends that we have observed is Singapore is becoming an export centre for the distribution of pirated DVDs to other parts of the world," he said.

According to Ellis, 13 percent of the seizures of pirated DVDs in Britain last year was transported from the city-state. - AFP