Psssst! Got $2 and looking for a copy of, say, Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings on DVD?

If you are shopping in China, where widespread piracy of software, music, films and other goods has provoked constant complaints from multinational companies and governments alike, you might be able to beat that price, a Time Warner senior executive confessed on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Reuters Global Technology, Media and Telecoms Summit on Tuesday, Jeffrey Bewkes, chief operating officer of Time Warner, whose recent blockbusters include Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Syriana, said the company battles the street market for DVDs in China by offering legitimate products, in the right time period at the right price. That price is about $2 or $3.

Still, he admitted that the New York-based company, whose revenues topped $43 billion in 2005, is battling, for example, a guy selling DVDs on a blanket for $1.
He was then asked if he thought selling DVDs for $2 or $3 was cheap enough.

“Probably not,” he said.