Redstone hails copyright protection

By KELLY OLSEN AP Business Writer

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - U.S. media mogul Sumner Redstone said Tuesday that attitudes toward protecting entertainment copyrights internationally are improving as authorities see the benefits of safeguarding the growing value of domestic products.

"I am increasingly preaching to the converted in piracy-prone markets around the world," Redstone said. "Governments in China and India are starting to take an active interest in enforcing copyright, if only to protect their own homegrown content," he said.

Redstone, executive chairman and controlling shareholder of both Viacom Inc. and CBS Corp., made the remarks in the keynote speech to the Seoul Digital Forum 2008, his first visit to South Korea.

Redstone cited as examples Bollywood, or the Indian film industry, lobbying its government for greater protections and China seeking to safeguard content it will produce for the Beijing Olympics.

The 84-year-old businessman said that film piracy costs the U.S. economy more than $20 billion a year.

Viacom is a media conglomerate that owns Paramount Pictures, MTV and Comedy Central. Viacom and CBS merged in 1999 but later split back up into two companies. Both are still controlled by Redstone.

During a question-and-answer session after the speech, Redstone took a swipe at popular video-sharing site YouTube, which his company has sued.

"We cannot tolerate any form of piracy by anyone, including YouTube," he said.

Viacom sued YouTube and its parent Google Inc. in March last year, claiming that the Web site is rife with copyrighted video from Viacom shows and seeking more than US$1 billion in damages.

Redstone also downplayed any talk of a "battle" between Viacom and CBS, saying such talk "has been manufactured" by the media.

"There is no battle between these companies," he said.

"CBS is doing exactly what it should do," he said. "It's doing what it considers to be in the interest of its stockholders.

"And Viacom is doing exactly what it should do. ... Success between these companies is not mutually exclusive."

Redstone did not elaborate, other than to say both companies would succeed in their "respective initiatives."

Viacom joined other Hollywood studios in April in a venture to create a new pay cable channel and video-on-demand service that would compete with CBS's Showtime and Time Warner Inc.'s HBO.

The Seoul Digital Forum is an annual three-day gathering of leading technology and media industry figures sponsored by South Korea's SBS television network.

Redstone met South Korean President Lee Myung-bak before the speech. Lee also addressed the gathering.

The event in recent years has drawn Google Inc. Chairman Eric Schmidt and Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. Associated Press President and CEO Tom Curley gave last year's keynote speech.