Pirates not put off by IP deal

Pirated DVDs are slowly returning to the shelves of local stores Wednesday after a brief absence, following the conclusion of a week-long intellectual property (IP) conference held in Beijing. 

Many of the video stores along the busy street of Sanlitun Houjie in Chaoyang district were still closed, while a few kept their doors open. 

"We had to take everything off the shelves this past week," said a Sanlitun DVD shop owner who declined to be named. Half the store's racks were empty, but the owner said things would return to normal soon.

A meeting of the World Intellectual Property Organization concluded Tuesday, signing the Beijing Treaty on Audiovisual Performances, an agreement which spans over 150 nations and aims to help actors, musicians and other performers retain rights to their likenesses and performances captured on video.

Liu Qi, Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, described the recently signed treaty as the pride of Beijing.

"We will grasp this opportunity to further strengthen IP and build Beijing as the first city of IP," said Liu, according to the Beijing Daily. 

In the past, there have been similar crackdowns when DVD stores shut down during an international conference, only to open a few days later.

"For smaller outlets, this latest effort will most likely fall in line with previous crackdowns," said Xu Xinming, a lawyer with the firm China Intellectual Property.

"But it's more an effort to make retailers aware of the benefits to operating within a mature system," he said.

China's pirate DVD industry raked in $6 billion in 2010, according to a Xinhua News Agency report in June 2011. 

But news of the IP agreement has yet to trickle down to street level.

"As long as it doesn't rain and the chengguan [urban management officers] don't bother me, I'll sell," said one street vendor, surnamed Zhang, selling DVDs near Zhangzizhonglu Subway Station, Dongcheng district, Wednesday.

Among his DVDs were current cinema blockbusters such as Hunger Games and Men In Black III.

"Almost nobody can operate a business with legal DVDs," said Hai Tao, from Music Store, on Dongsibei Dajie, which sells local and imported CDs and DVDs. 

"Not only are they expensive, but the taxes added kill the little profit margin left," he remarked.