Russia, China Top USTR List of IP Rights Offenders
China and Russia again led the USTR Priority Watch List of weak intellectual property (IP) rights regimes in a Special 301 report released Mon. Argentina, Chile, Egypt, India, Israel, Lebanon, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela also made the list. The report identified Russia’s AllofMP3.com and China’s Baidu as “notorious virtual markets” for illicit trade in copyrighted works. Efforts to shut down AllofMP3.com -- “the world’s largest server-based pirate music website” -- have failed, but Russian authorities are investigating the operation, the report said. And Baidu is the “largest of an estimated 7 or more China-based ‘MP3 search engines’ offering deep links to song files for downloads or streaming,” the report said.
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Despite Chinese antipiracy campaigns and more IP rights cases in Chinese courts, “piracy and counterfeiting levels in China remained unacceptably high in 2006,” the report said. Of copyrighted materials sold in China 85-93% were pirated, indicating “little or no improvement over 2005,” USTR said. The report “flags many other issues on which we hope to remain constructively engaged with China,” U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said. China should eliminate legal obstacles to preventing piracy and “provide strong administrative supervision, backed by penalties,” to make ISPs take down infringing content when receive notice, Schwab added.
Weak IP rights enforcement is a “pervasive problem” in Russia, the USTR said. The U.S. will scrutinize Russia to see if it fulfills commitments in a 2006 agreement between the nations, part of Russia’s effort to join WTO, the report said. “Our Russian colleagues see the value of intellectual property to Russia’s economy and are working hard to deliver on their commitments,” Schwab said: “I urge them to make the most of the coming weeks and months.” The USTR pegged U.S. copyright industries’ 2006 losses to Russian piracy at $2.1 billion-plus. Prosecution of IP cases “remains sporadic and inadequate in Russia,” the report said.
Rising broadband penetration makes the Internet “an extremely efficient vehicle for disseminating pirated products,” the report said: To fight back, more nations are using WIPO Internet Treaties “to create a legal environment conducive to investment and growth in Internet-related businesses and technologies,” the USTR said. More pirates use handheld devices, flash drives and other mobile technologies, the report said. Some even load the devices with illegal content before sale, particularly in India, Indonesia, Japan and Malaysia, the report said.
The report is “a sobering reminder of the challenges ahead,” MPAA said: “It is our intellectual property that fuels this economy’s growth and it is imperative that this economic driver is protected from theft both at home and abroad.” The International Intellectual Property Alliance called the Special 301 report a “critically important tool;” RIAA said that despite the USTR’s work, “conditions in far too many countries work against the ability to invest in the creation and distribution of original recordings.”
But the report also highlights “significant” progress, including Vietnam’s Jan. enrollment in the WTO. Vietnam enacted a “comprehensive” IP law and implemented a “modern legal framework,” the USTR said. Taiwan enacted a measure to create a “specialized” IP rights court, the report said. The EU, the Bahamas, Bulgaria, Latvia and Croatia came off the Watch List, and Belize and Brazil moved down from the Priority Watch List to the Watch List. The USTR is working with foreign govts. to stop their use of unauthorized or illegal software, and “considerable progress has been made,” it said. Many countries now require govt. agencies to use licensed software, the report said. - Alexis Fabbri