In what is being seen as a bid to offer people living in China an alternative to piracy, Warner Bros. has announced it is to create an online digital film rental service there.

Piracy is a major problem in China, with the latest movies usually available in pirated form for around 10 yuan each (US$1.46). With this in mind, Warner Bros. is set to offer rental versions of its films for between 4-7 yuan (US$0.56 - $1.03) each. The films will carry DRM and will be available to either download to a hard drive or stream to watch if a user?s connection can cope.

Those rentals will be managed through a service being created in conjunction with the Beijing company Union Voole. They are an already established online service in China and provide a similar service for other movie studios including Sony Pictures.

Matthew?s Opinion
The introduction of reliable digital download services and Internet connections fast enough to cope with streaming movies look like the best solution to cutting piracy in areas like China.

Trying to clean up China, which has piracy levels as high as 90%, would be a very difficult challenge for anyone to undertake. It may be easier to just bypass the problem completely and start offering content online instead. There are still ways around the protection put in place on digital streams, but it would allow more control over that content in the first place.

With digital releases there are no DVDs to manufacture, no transportation time or costs, and therefore less of a window of opportunity for piracy to occur. Each new film has more of a chance of being released without a pirated Chinese-language copy already being available. This doesn?t stop copies of the U.S. or European versions of the films appearing for sale, but then they won?t have the Chinese language as an option making them more limited in appeal.
DJ Norix Reviewed by DJ Norix on . Warner Bros. responds to piracy with Chinese rental venture In what is being seen as a bid to offer people living in China an alternative to piracy, Warner Bros. has announced it is to create an online digital film rental service there. Piracy is a major problem in China, with the latest movies usually available in pirated form for around 10 yuan each (US$1.46). With this in mind, Warner Bros. is set to offer rental versions of its films for between 4-7 yuan (US$0.56 - $1.03) each. The films will carry DRM and will be available to either download to Rating: 5