Target of Protests in Little Saigon Is Charged With Pirating Videos

The Little Saigon shopkeeper who sparked weeks of protests by hanging Communist symbols in his Westminster video store was arrested and charged Tuesday with running a video piracy operation that distributed thousands of Asian videotapes from his shop.

Truong Van Tran, accompanied by his attorney, turned himself in to police before being arraigned before a Westminster Superior Court judge on the felony charge, which carries a five-year maximum sentence.

Although Deputy Dist. Atty. Dan Wagner argued that Tran--who recently visited Vietnam--poses a flight risk, Judge Brett London agreed to release the defendant on his own recognizance, posting no bail, provided he surrender his passport. A preliminary hearing is scheduled April 19.

Before the hearing, Tran strongly denied the charges, insisting he had obtained permission from distribution companies to duplicate and rent the videotapes to about 1,000 video store customers.

“I never copy American tapes because I know that’s against the law,” Tran said.

But prosecutors said Tran violated copyright laws by purchasing master copies of films made in Asia and then copying them onto blank tapes, using more than 100 VCRs in his Westminster store. Authorities confiscated more than 17,000 videos, 90% of which were allegedly counterfeits.

“We think it’s a strong case--that’s why we charged him,” Wagner said.

Tran has been the focus of a two-month saga that began when he hung a Communist Vietnamese flag and picture of Ho Chi Minh at his former video store on Bolsa Avenue. The display ignited passionate protests from thousands of Vietnamese emigres in the community who considered the Communist symbols offensive.

The protests, which inspired similar demonstrations in Vietnamese communities around the country, ended after Tran gave up his efforts to reopen his store last week.

Authorities had been investigating Tran for almost a month, ever since they entered his store and noticed a string of VCRs hooked up to one unit. Officers were in the store to protect Tran from protesters as he put the flag and photo back up after a court victory.

Tran admits he copied thousands of tapes for his customers, but he said the operation was legal because his three San Francisco Bay Area-based distribution companies permitted the practice.

He said he charged 25 cents per rental and never made copies of American films.

But an official with Tai Seng Video Marketing Inc., a San Francisco company that distributed many of the tapes, said his company did not give Tran permission to copy its tapes.

The tapes from his company consist of soap operas and movies produced mostly in Hong Kong and dubbed in a variety of Asian languages, said Alan Huie, the company’s general counsel. They are registered with the United States copyright office and protected under federal law, he said.

Asian video piracy in this country, Huie said, is a “pervasive problem.” In 1997, for example, investigators seized more than 100,000 bootleg copies of his company’s tapes, which generally retail for $22 each, from across the United States.

Prosecutors say copyright laws apply equally to all videotapes, regardless of their place of origin. In the last three years, about two dozen people charged with video piracy have been convicted, Wagner said.

The sentences usually range from a fine to one year in jail, he said.

Van Thai Tran, an attorney and activist representing the protesters, said they would not celebrate Tran’s arrest. The community’s “symbolic victory,” he said, came when the Hi Tek sign was removed from the video store last week.

“It’s very tragic,” the attorney said. “I don’t think the community is gleeful over this at all.”