The Entertainment Software Assn. (ESA) called on the Malaysian go...
The Entertainment Software Assn. (ESA) called on the Malaysian govt. to increase its level of intellectual property protection after the country was included in a “Watch List” of countries announced Fri. by Peter Allgeier, the Acting U.S. Trade Rep.…
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(USTR). ESA applauded the USTR’s action in placing Malaysia and other countries involved in widespread game piracy on the list. ESA Pres. Douglas Lowenstein called Malaysia “the primary source of pirated optical disc entertainment software in the world.” He said “the prevalence of pirated products and their export from the country hinders the development of legitimate entertainment software markets in target export countries, and makes it extremely difficult for game publishers to establish legitimate markets in those areas.” Exports of pirated entertainment software produced in Malaysia had been seized in more than 20 countries on 5 continents, he said, adding that the “problem of production and export by optical disc factories in Malaysia must be immediately addressed.” Although Malaysia remains the primary country of concern for the video and computer game industry, large-scale production of pirated entertainment software products also occurs in China, Russia, Thailand and Ukraine, ESA said. It said Russia remains on the Priority Watch List (PWL) but USTR also announced an out-of-cycle review will be conducted later this year. The ESA said it “urges USTR to continue close monitoring of Russia’s efforts in addressing the country’s severe piracy problems, to ensure that the country’s weak IPR enforcement regime is satisfactorily resolved before finalizing Russia’s WTO accession process.” China, meanwhile, was added to the PWL, “signaling USTR’s heightened concern over unabated piracy in the country and the lack of enforcement,” ESA said. The USTR’s Special 301 Report continued to list Ukraine as a Priority Foreign Country and named 14 countries to the PWL and 36 to the Watch List, with Paraguay remaining under Section 306 monitoring. Other countries of particular concern to the entertainment software industry identified in the report included Brazil, Canada and Mexico.