p2pnet - rss feed: Korea halves local movie showings
p2p news / p2pnet: Hollywood has succeeded in forcing Korea to abandon its policy for showing home-made films in its cinemas.
The Cheney / Bush administration’s US Trade Representative Rob Portman was behind the move to coerce the Korean government into "significantly" reducing restrictions on the US film industry’s access to the Korean market, says the MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America).
MPAA spokesman Dan ‘Jedi’ Glickman "applauded" Portman for his work, says the MPAA in a statement. "We look forward to having the opportunity to bring more U.S. films to more Korean audiences," he said, going on:
"This is also a significant step forward in improving American access to overseas markets. Our ultimate goal is a global market for films and filmed entertainment unimpeded by the artificialities of government policies".
The Korean screen quota has been a, "long-standing issue for the U.S. film industry and the MPAA and its members have been able to make this progress only because of the steadfast support and diligence of the Administration and its trade team," added Glickman.
Korea will now slash its current screen quota by half.
At the moment, Korean cinemas must exhibit nationally made films 146 days per year on each screen, amounting to 40 percent of the year.
January 26th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
damn, sounds good Canada should implement this!
January 26th, 2006 at 5:09 pm
I ment the part about having to show movies made in the nation 40% of the time
January 26th, 2006 at 6:23 pm
Many countries have had laws like this, including Canada and France - home-country quotas on cultural productions, and on things like food in some cases i think. U.S. reps in trade organization have tried to get them repealed as “protectionism”.
Of course this U.s. opposition is based on a profit motive and requires viewing the movies, etc. as purely economic goods. But the reason the laws are enacted is not purely economic. Rather, it is a concern about the home-country culture being overwhlemed by the American influence.
Similar motives in the UK’s resistance to economic union with the EU. I agree, it is worthwhile to preserve culture instead of letting it be all homogenized to the american version - which is obviously less than ideal.
January 26th, 2006 at 8:27 pm
“Our ultimate goal is global domination and unimpeded profits for our films and filmed entertainment. We will usurp any government who’s policies confilict with these goals by any means necessary, legal or otherwise…”