Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Protectionism of TV Programmes Spurs Copyright Piracy: D'oh!

TransWorldNews wrote that Homer Simpson is persona non grata in Chinese prime time.

The US TV series The Simpsons, of which Homer is one of the protagonists, is banned from Chinese TV (between 5-8 p.m.), not because Homer drinks too much beer, but because the series is, just as the British Teletubbies and Japanese animations, too popular in China, according to the Chinese government. The Chinese TV series/movies industry, still in its infancy, cannot evolve when it is standing in the shadow of the foreign movies industry, their argument must be. But this will make foreign series the more interesting. And the effect of this protectionism is that copyright piracy will only increase. Besides, without foreign competition the quality of the Chinese TV series/movies can artificially remain below the international standards.

Read TransWorldNews's article here.

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