Arnie promotes campaign to combat DVD piracy

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger returned to his entertainment roots today, joining his longtime friend, fellow action star Jackie Chan, to promote a public service campaign combating film piracy in China.

The rampant piracy of DVDs, fashion apparel, pharmaceuticals and other products has been a theme of the governor’s three-city trade mission, which began on Monday in Beijing. But the issue had not taken centre stage on his agenda until he reached Hong Kong, the last stop on his six-day itinerary.

The governor and Chan unveiled a 30-second anti-pirating public service announcement at a luncheon of Hong Kong’s American Chamber of Commerce. But the joint appearance of the two longtime film stars had the feel of a Hollywood press junket, with dozens of camera crews and reporters jostling into a hotel ballroom to capture a shot of the men onstage together.

“Who wants to really create or invent new technologies...if we cannot safeguard the outcome of the final product?” Schwarzenegger told the gathering. “Entertainment is a £17.5 billion industry in California and Hong Kong, of course, is the movie capital of Asia. We have a lot at stake.”

The public service clip was created by Jonathan Mostow, who directed Schwarzenegger in Terminator 3. Its £110,000 budget was put together by several film studios, the Motion Picture Association of America, and the California Jobs Commission.

It debuted on Hong Kong television today, and promoters hope to expand it into mainland China at some point in the future.

The PSA features both men in leather jackets zooming down a road on motorcycles, dodging exploding cars and other hazards.

“When you buy pirated movies and music, you support criminals!” Chan shouts.

“Let’s terminate it!” Schwarzenegger thunders.

Speaking to reporters later, Schwarzenegger defended the decision to launch the PSA campaign in Hong Kong, a smaller, but much more open political environment than Communist mainland China.

He said he’d raised the issue of intellectual property theft in meetings with government officials both in Beijing and Taiwan, but felt the hard sell wasn’t appropriate at this point.

“It’s a sensitive thing because ... we don’t want to go and embarrass them,” Schwarzenegger said. “It’s much better to just negotiate those things slowly and surely. There are probably a lot of things they don’t like that we are doing.”

Nearing the end of his week in China, Schwarzenegger was asked whether the widely publicised trade mission had accomplished anything substantive.

“Unlike other governors, I’m very fortunate that because of my past careers and life, I have access directly to the people,” he said. “Wherever I go, it gives me much more power to get results ... I think it was a trip of substance.”