Three big pirates

Three big pirates

Washington - A US-based industry group demanded the government focus more closely on intellectual property violations in Thailand. But the big surprise was the group's new Big Three of world IP scofflaws: Russia, China - and Canada.

Eric Smith, president of the International Intellectual Property Alliance, urged that Thailand be placed on the "priority watch list" by the US Trade Representative, along with old-time pirates Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Mexico, Peru, Saudi Arabia and Ukraine.

But then, for his second surprise, he asked for the addition of 10 other brand-new countries on the lower "watch list," a move which would bring that list to 29: Spain, Greece, Sweden, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Brunei, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Kazakhstan.

The USTR releases its annual list at the end of April.

Later this week, Thailand is to submit evidence that officials hope will convince the United States that Thailand has improved its record on piracy.

Puangrat Aswapisit told reporters last week that Thailand will submit evidence by Friday to try to move the country off the US priority watch list. It was elevated to that list last year, when US officials said that Thailand had arrested only a few major violators of US copyrights and trademarks.

Puangrat would not comment when asked about rumours that the United States plans to downgrade Thailand even more. If Thailand were listed as a "priority foreign country," the United States might impose economic sanctions.

But few believe the US will take that action, given the country's return to democracy. It is more likely Thailand will receive at least another year on the priority list.

The IIPA report on Monday said that Thailand last year recorded "mixed results in copyright protection and enforcement."

"Notwithstanding the recent efforts of the Thai Government, high levels of piracy persist and continue to claim victims."

On one hand, there were a number of raids on malls and other sales areas. But rampant piracy continued, and, " The book publishing industry, in particular, reports a disturbing surge of exports of high quality academic and professional books."

The big surprise on Monday was the addition of next-door neighbour Canada to the IIPA criticism. Lumping it with serial violators Russia and China as one of the Big Three pirates was surprising.

According to Smith, US business software companies lost an estimated $511 million in sales last year in Canada because of piracy, up from $494 million in 2006,

One-third of the business software used in Canada in 2007 was an illegal copy, down just 1 percentage point from the previous year, the group said.

Also, 10 years after signing World Intellectual Property Organization treaties extending copyright protections to the Internet, Canada still has taken “no meaningful steps toward modernizing its copyright law to meet the global minimum standards,” the group said.

The industry coalition said it “conservatively” estimates that US companies lost at least $30 billion to $35 billion in sales around the world in 2007.

China again led the list with estimated lost sales in that market of $2.98 billion, from $2.43 billion in 2006. US business software companies suffered the biggest piracy losses — $2.47 billion — the group said.

However, US recording industry losses in China more than doubled in 2007 to $451-million, as the market share for pirated music rose to 90 per cent.

“Online and mobile piracy have become huge problems with China's Internet-connected population having reached 210 million at the end of 2007 and with over 500 million mobile devices in the marketplace,” the group said.

Russia, as part of its negotiations to join the World Trade Organization, signed an agreement with the United States in November 2006 pledging action to reduce piracy.

More than one year later, Russia has not fully implemented that pact and the country's copyright piracy problem “remains one of the most serious in the world. Piracy rates for some sectors continues at over 70 per cent in 2007,” the group said.

However, total losses in Russia fell last year to an estimated $1.43 billion, from $1.96 billion in 2006.

Source : Bangkokpost, Tue, February 12, 2008