George R

Bollywood and Hollywood Are Teaming Up for Growth

Hi Julia,

I love Indian "food".

I also read your articles regularly. I like your "style".

While I appreciate your optimism regarding India (and perhaps the other three components of the economically explosive BRICS ... that's Brazil, Russia, India, and China ... as well), I think any article on this subject that does not mention Intellectual Property rights and concerns falls short on the big picture ... both the opportunties and the problems.

Creative industries cannot thrive in economies where 8 out of 10 (or, realistically, even more!) copyrighted works are pirated rather than used under a reasonable licensing fee arrangement.

Piracy in the BRICS is actually growing in gross numbers, in spite of what these governments claim. It is simply a fact of life that the youth in these countries are NOT taught to respect intellectual property rights at any level of their education.

These hypocritcal worldwide standards have influenced the youth in this country as well. By and large, we are taught not to steal ... unless, of course that stealing pertains to movies, songs, digtial artwork, and photographs downloaded from the Internet.

But, at least we do hold people accountable if, and when, we catch them.

So, by and large, we in this country will respect the Indian Bollywood copyrights while India distibutes our Hollywood works under virtually no government sponsored sense of business integrity or legality.

Why do you think this country has gotten itself into this economic mess, Julia? We are weak-kneeed on the protection of American copyrights, and quick to look for the PR or business opportunties of producing a movie with cheap labor or making a cameo appearance every now and then.

"Food" for thought.

Keep up the dialogue.

George

George P. Riddick, III
Chairman/CEO
Imageline, Inc.

[e-mail]...