DVD importer finds he has bootleg tiger by the tail

By CHRIS DANIELS Consumer reporter

A hit Chinese martial arts film has set off a DVD piracy fight between a Hollywood studio giant and a West Auckland importer.

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon has been a surprise blockbuster for the Columbia Tristar studio and is still playing in theatres throughout New Zealand.

The studio is outraged that nearly 400 pirated DVD copies of the movie have been imported by one of New Zealand's biggest DVD wholesalers, Steve McIver, who owns DVD World in Glen Eden.

The Crouching Tiger case is thought to represent the first major influx of pirated movies since parallel-importing laws were relaxed two years ago.

Movie studios have been among the most vocal opponents of parallel importing - a means by which people such as Mr McIver can bring in movies before a studio wants to release them in New Zealand.

He admitted that 380 discs in a recent shipment of 600 copies of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon were pirated, but says that he was ripped off by a Singapore dealer.

The discs had been imported in good faith, and as soon as he became suspicious, he ordered them all recalled from stores.

Poor-quality artwork and other technical differences on many of the discs convinced him they had been illegally copied, probably in Asia.

Before parallel importing was made legal, studios controlled the distribution of movies on video and DVD, allowing them to delay release for as long as they liked.

Because Mr McIver and other importers can now bring them in without permission from the studio, New Zealanders can see some titles on video or disc while the movies are still showing in theatres.

A DVD disc will retail in video stores for $29 to $49.

Columbia Tristar was not planning to release Crouching Tiger in New Zealand for at least six months.

The presence of pirated movies in this country shows how parallel importing helps the pirate industry to flourish.

Columbia Tristar NZ managing director Andrew Cornwell said the studio's lawyers would investigate Mr McIver's pirate DVD shipment.

Mr McIver said he had no doubt that 380 copies of the Crouching Tiger shipment were pirated.

If anyone saw a DVD printed with the words "All Zones," then it was pirated and should be returned.

The remaining 225 discs, reading "Zone Three" were legitimately imported. DVD players are programmed to play discs only from particular zones.

This allows studios to release films in Asia, for example, that will not work on DVD players in the United States.

Many DVD players in this country, however, are altered to play discs from all zones.

Mr McIver said Columbia Tristar did not like him parallel-importing DVDs and refused to do business with him.

Other studios were much more realistic, realising that parallel importing did not lose them money at the box office.

The Motion Picture Distributors' Association last year blamed DVDs for a 9 per cent drop in New Zealand box office takings.