The U.S. economy lost $9.2 billion through copyright breaches in other countries in 2002, the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) reported yesterday.
The report was released the day before the IIPA presents its antipiracy recommendations for 2003, known as “Special 301,” to U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick.
The Washington-based IIPA is an umbrella group comprising several associations in the media and software industries such as the Business Software Alliance, the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America and the Interactive Digital Software Association.
Copyright breaches include illegally copied optical disc products for audio, music and software as well as piracy of entertainment and software products carried out through the Internet.
The U.S. State Department defines Special 301 as the part of U.S. trade law that requires the U.S. trade representative to identify countries that deny adequate protection for intellectual property rights (IPR) or that deny fair and equitable market access for U.S. entities that rely on IPR.
In its most recent review, the IIPA discussed IPR breaches in 63 countries, of which 56 were placed on some level of alert to be monitored.
The IIPA singled out Ukraine for the most stringent restrictions. The country is under U.S. trade sanctions, and the IIPA recommended in its report that these continue until Ukraine passes appropriate IPR legislation.
Also in the line of fire is China, which the IIPA recommended be monitored for compliance with its bilateral commitments with the U.S. on copyright enforcement. Failure by China to demonstrate compliance could result in almost immediate trade sanctions under Section 306 of the Trade Act, the IIPA said.
At a lower level of severity is the priority watch list. The list already contains Argentina, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, the Philippines, Russia and Taiwan, and the IIPA has recommended that the Bahamas, Bolivia, Kuwait, Lithuania, Pakistan, Poland, South Africa, South Korea and Thailand be added to this category.
The IIPA placed a further 33 countries on a standard watch list, while seven additional countries were described as deserving further attention but weren’t placed on a formal list.
The relative level and absolute amount of piracy are among the criteria used by the IIPA to grade individual countries. Thus, Brazil, with overall piracy rates of around 50%, is on the IIPA’s priority watch list, while Peru, where recording and music software piracy is estimated at 98%, remains on the ordinary watch list. Vietnam, where software piracy is estimated by the Business Software Alliance to reach 99% and where music and video piracy is also rife, isn’t included on any IIPA list.
According to the IIPA, absolute piracy losses are greatest in China, reaching $1.85 billion in 2002. The IIPA estimated motion picture piracy in China at 91%, recording and music piracy at 90%, business software piracy at 93% and entertainment software piracy at 96%.
By David Legard, IDG News Service
