Compliance Toolkit

Singapore cracks down on cartoon piracy

Tags:
Cartoon,
Japan,
Anime,
Singapore

Staff CNETAsia

Published: 28 Jul 2003 10:10 BST

A new industry association will be launched next week to curb video compact disc (VCD ) piracy -- but mainly of a single genre of movie.

Preliminary details suggest that the new body -- the Anti-Video Piracy Association (AVPA) -- will focus on stamping out illegal copies of Japanese drama serials and cartoons, commonly referred to as anime.

While full details of AVPA's members have yet to be disclosed, it is understood they will include major Japanese television stations such as Asahi National Broadcasting and Nippon Television Network Corporation.

"Singapore is running the risk of gaining recognition as the headquarters for pirates of Japanese anime and serial dramas," the association said in statement last week.

"The AVPA will serve as the industry voice to target video piracy in Singapore. It will work with licensors/licensees as well as the relevant authorities to tackle video pirates head on," it added.

In the past few years, Singapore has stepped up its efforts to combat the piracy issue in a bid to boost trade ties with the West. In January, the city-state agreed to enforce copyright protection as part of a free trade pact inked with the US.

According to the Motion Picture Association (MPA), another media industry watchdog, piracy losses have significantly dwindled in the island-state.

"Singapore is already the third-lowest in terms of losses due to piracy in Asia-Pacific, ahead of only Vietnam and New Zealand,” MPA's vice president and regional director Michael Ellis told CNETAsia in a previous interview.

While AVPA seems to suggest the republic may be gaining notoriety as the base for pirated Japanese VCDs, MPA feels Singapore could instead be used as transshipment hub for bootleg material.

Singapore has the busiest air and sea port in Southeast Asia and serves as the region’s most important transport hub, so its role in pirated DVD or VCD re-distribution occurs as a by-product.

According to Ellis, about 13 percent of counterfeit DVD seizures made in the United Kingdom last year were shipped from the republic.