Word: movie88
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Dates: during 2002-2002
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...best indication yet of how close Tinseltown is to getting truly burned by the Internet. The rogue website was a virtual video rental store where visitors could screen some 3,600 films, including Hollywood blockbusters such as Gladiator, for just $1 per viewing. Operating out of Taiwan, Movie88 had no licensing or distribution agreements with the studios. Site founder S.E. Tan says he was doing film moguls a favor. "These Internet movies do not compare with the quality you see in the cinema," he says. "You watch it online, and if the movie is good, you go to the theater...
...ingrates at the Motion Picture Association of America, whose members prefer to handle their own promotion, see things differently. At the behest of the U.S., Taiwanese police last week tracked down the computer servers that housed Movie88 and, in a highly publicized raid, shut the site down. Authorities said Tan was clearly breaking Taiwanese copyright laws. "This is Taiwan's year to crack down on intellectual property theft," says Lu Wen-hsiang, a senior official in the Ministry of Economic Affairs...
...What moviemakers fear most is how lucrative and easy video trafficking could become on the Net. Movie88's Tan, who TIME tracked down through a Malaysian cell phone number, says he is the chief technology officer of Eternity Italy Ltd., a virtual company registered in the British Virgin Islands that is the holding firm for Movie88. Tan?identified by Taiwanese police as Tan Soo Leong?says he created a vast film library by copying DVDs to his computers. "I can get great movies in L.A.," he says, "Hollywood Video, Blockbuster. 20/20 has a very good, very complete collection...
...says the company doesn't need a big central office. "As long as we have people and computers," he says, "We can do it." Moreover, he denies doing anything illegal under Taiwanese law. He says he started Movie88 to goad Hollywood into using advanced technologies for movie distribution...
...World Trade Organization, is less interested in the march of technology and more interested in demonstrating it can control its rampant piracy problems. If Tan is arrested in Taiwan, he could face up to seven years in prison. Tan won't say if he has plans to relaunch Movie88 in another country. But even if he doesn't, you can bet somebody else has already got the idea...