AsiaPundit would wager that at least 80 percent of expats in China buy pirated DVDs, including those who are members of the US and European chambers of commerce as well as employees of media and entertainment industries. AsiaPundit would even argue that it is understandable given the dearth of legal, uncensored material in the country. That said, selling pirated DVDs from your Shanghai penthouse is truly a dumbass thing to do. Randolph Hobson Guthrie deserves this:

Randolph Hobson Guthrie, the international DVD piracy kingpin profiled recently in Wired, pled guilty today in Mississippi federal court to Conspiracy to Traffic in Counterfeit Goods.

He agreed to forfeit $823,833.00 to the U.S. government, and may receive penalties of up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Snip from a media advisory issued this afternoon by the Motion Picture Association of America, which supported the case against Guthrie:

    In July 2004, officers from the Chinese Ministry of Public Security and the Shanghai Public Security Bureau arrested Guthrie, along with five others in Shanghai. Investigators seized more than 210,000 counterfeit DVDs. Guthrie was then brought to the United States in October.

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