NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Locked in an epic battle over home video piracy in China, Warner Bros. Entertainment apparently is trying a new tactic and one that the movie studio would be highly unlikely to try at home.

The Los Angeles Times reported Thursday that Warner Bros., like CNN/Money a Time Warner (Research) company, just released "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" on DVD in China at the same time that the teen comedy debuted Tuesday in U.S. theaters.

Piracy, whether counterfeit DVDs or illegal Internet downloads, is an estimated $3.5 billion problem for the U.S. movie industry, or about 18 percent of 2004 revenues. Bootlegging is an especially big problem in China, where arcane copyright laws and government bureaucrats have made it very difficult for U.S. companies to combat counterfeiting.

The Times described Warner's move in China as a way to offer movie buffs legal alternatives to stolen copies. But the paper also noted that Warner Bros. hedged its bet. The studio does not plan to release "The Sisterhood" in Chinese theaters, which means the DVD release won't cannibalize box office sales.

Craig Hoffman, a Warner Bros. spokesman, told the paper that the studio is not looking at the moment to deploy its China strategy anywhere else.

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