Hollywood’s top lobbyist said Tuesday the American industry will increasingly work with the growing Chinese private film sector to pressure Beijing to loosen its movie quotas and better combat piracy. The top American studios want to show more films in the booming Chinese market, but have been frustrated by Beijing’s annual quota of 20 blockbusters on a revenue-sharing basis. Chinese films accounted for more than 60 percent of the domestic box office revenues of 4.3 billion Chinese yuan ($630 million) in 2008. “I do not think there has been enormous progress made on that issue,” Motion Picture Association of America Chairman and Chief Executive Dan Glickman told The Associated Press in an interview in Hong Kong after attending the Shanghai International Film Festival. He said he expects to see more Chinese-Hollywood co-productions, which are exempt from the import quota. Glickman said the Hollywood trade group will increasingly work with private filmmakers in China, who have better connections with government officials and have a stake in intellectual property protection and more product for the growing number of movie theaters. China had about 4,100 screens by the end of 2008, a 16 percent increase from the year before. “I think ultimately working in that direction will be as or more effective than just working with the government because I think … there’s got to be more internal Chinese pressure on the government rather than just American and foreign pressure,” Glickman said. “If it’s just us pushing the Chinese government alone, it’s probably not going to get a lot of progress. We need to get much more Chinese engagement in the issue,” he said. The former Clinton administration agriculture secretary and former Democratic congressman said China has made progress on curbing piracy — although he came across a pirated DVD store in Shanghai that carried thousands of titles. Glickman said despite the lack of progress on access to the Chinese market, he does not expect Hollywood studios to shift resources to another major developing market — India. “I think there were some who believed that we were putting an enormous amount of effort here and not getting a lot of results in the process,” he said. “But notwithstanding that, they recognize this is the biggest potential market in the world. So I think they’re going to continue to work to get their product into the country.” Glickman said the Obama administration is well-versed on Hollywood’s interests in China, noting that Vice President Joe Biden was chairman of the congressional anti-piracy caucus when he was a U.S. senator. But he said he understood such issues may have to give way to more pressing matters, like North Korea.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More