Law-abiding Japan might seem far from the frontlines of Asia’s piracy wars, but don’t tell that to Motion Picture Assn. chairman-CEO Dan Glickman.
Glickman delivered the keynote address Thursday at the Tokyo Film Festival’s antipiracy seminar — and rattled off figures showing piracy losses in the market hit $742 million in 2005, some 15% of all revenues.
Of those losses, $178 million was chalked up to Internet pirates, including an estimated 1.2 million people using peer-to-peer software.
“The economic and social impact of intellectual property theft is enormous and will have even greater long-term implications if not brought under control,” Glickman said.
Camcorded copies are still the bigger problem in the territory, Glickman noted, accounting for around 90% of early-release pirate discs, the majority containing Japanese pics.
