Bootlegging

Clearing a major obstacle to the delivery of digital movies and music into consumers' homes, five giants of the computer and electronics industries have agreed on technology designed to protect Hollywood's most valuable content from being illegally copied. Intel Corp., Sony Corp. and three others are expected to announce today a joint proposal to deploy encryption technology that will help prevent people from making illicit copies of copyrighted digital content.

The owner of a video store was given two weeks by a judge to shut down his business after federal marshals confiscated 1,387 pirated videotapes, authorities said Friday. Rene Gonzalez, owner of Odalys Video at 896 S. Harbor Blvd., has until Jan. 3 to sell his business. If he does not, it will be shut down by authorities, according to an order handed down Thursday by U.S. District Judge Robert J. Kelleher.

Police confiscated more than 40,000 suspected counterfeit videotapes after a search of a video store in Santa Ana on Friday, police said. The owner of Saigon Video called police to report a robbery Thursday evening at the store on South Harbor Boulevard. Officers found more than 100 videotape recorders and what they believe are pirated cassettes with homemade labels, said Santa Ana Sgt. Raul Luna. Police served the owner with a search warrant early Friday and hauled the tapes away in a truck.

The recording industry is stepping up its anti-piracy efforts during the holiday season, trying to clamp down on flea markets in Los Angeles and New York as well as bootleggers at colleges and on the Internet. Meanwhile, representatives from six higher-education trade associations have agreed to form task forces to study anti-piracy policies and technologies. The groups will be advised by the Recording Industry Assn. of America, the Motion Picture Assn.

Federal marshals seized 378 allegedly pirated movies from a video store here, including recent releases such as "A River Runs Through It" and "Glengarry Glen Ross." Video-$-Day on Calle de Industrias was raided by authorities on Thursday after a lengthy investigation initiated by representatives of the Motion Picture Assn. of America. "We had several complaints from consumers about the quality of the tapes there, so we launched an investigation," said David H.

China's decision to ban "Memoirs of a Geisha" from being shown in theaters hasn't put a crimp in the supply lines of illicit DVDs. One Beijing vendor produced a copy from his sidewalk display in seconds. "It's a good copy," he said, offering it for 85 cents. "Of course it's been banned, but it doesn't really matter. All of my supply is pirated," he said, adding that he enjoyed the movie immensely.

Attorneys for Truong Van Tran, who sparked sometimes-violent protests in the Vietnamese community by hanging Communist symbols in his Westminster video store, asked a judge Monday to remove the Orange County district attorney's office from the video piracy case pending against him. As evidence that newly elected Dist. Atty. Anthony J. Rackauckas lacks objectivity in the case, Tran's attorney cited Rackauckas' appearance last month at a political rally for protesters in front of Tran's store.

The world's biggest music companies and their counterparts in the technology industry released a preliminary set of security guidelines for portable devices that play music downloaded from the Internet. A popular technology called MP3 makes it easy to copy and distribute near-CD-quality music over the Internet without regard for copyrights or royalties. The new guidelines set standards that would eventually make a new generation of digital music players such as Diamond Multimedia Systems Inc.'

In an unusual "customer service" policy that has reignited record industry concern over home taping, several California-based music store chains have begun allowing patrons to return any recordings that they don't like--no questions asked. The Wherehouse, a 280-store music chain based in Torrance, in the past month has begun advertising that "if for any reason you are not happy with your purchase, bring it back in 10 days and we'll exchange it."

Why were members of Congress watching the movie "Dinosaur" in the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday? Walt Disney Co. chief Michael Eisner arranged the screening to graphically make a point about the dangers of cyber-piracy. Speaking to the Congressional Internet Caucus, Eisner urged lawmakers to consider legislation that would require computer makers and Internet service providers to install technology preventing users from downloading copyrighted material.