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February 12, 2005
RIAA And Other Intellectual Property Groups Seek World Trade Organization Help In Cracking Down On Piracy In China
The nation's leading intellectual property trade organizations, including the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), dramatically stepped up their calls for greater anti-piracy enforcement by the Chinese government.Responding to a request from the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) for public comments on the adequacy of China's enforcement of intellectual property laws, the International Intellectual Property Alliance, which includes copyright groups like the RIAA, submitted a report that outlined the magnitude of the harm that America's copyright industries suffer because of China's failure to comply with it's international obligations. The intellectual property rights groups' submission requests that China's failure to crack down on intellectual property theft be brought before the World Trade Organization (WTO) and that China be placed on the U.S. government's Special 301 "priority watch list" – countries that USTR determines present significant piracy problems for U.S. rightholders.
This would be the first time ever that China's intellectual property enforcement issues would be raised with the WTO, the international body formed to resolve trade disputes.
"Despite a number of sometimes encouraging commitments, and notwithstanding the tremendous efforts of Ambassador Zoellick, Secretary Evans and entire Administration, China has failed to follow through on meaningful copyright protection and enforcement against the widespread piracy of our industry's products," said Neil Turkewitz, Executive Vice President, International, RIAA. "Our report to the trade representative describes in detail the magnitude of the problems that the nation's copyright industries continue to face in China. This is primarily due to China's failure to comply with multiple agreements that would have greatly strengthened the enforcement of intellectual property laws. The situation in China is further exacerbated by China's failure to provide greater access to its markets, thus limiting the supply of legitimate materials—a demand that is currently primarily met by Chinese pirates."
"Piracy rates for copyrighted material continue to hover around 90 percent," Turkewitz added. "Given the enormity of the problem, we believe that these issues deserve to be elevated to consideration by the WTO."
In addition to the submission by the U.S. intellectual property groups, the record industry's international trade organization, IFPI, has also recently highlighted the reoccurring problem of intellectual property theft in China. Jay Berman, the former Chairman of IFPI, testified before the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission on February 4. Berman emphasized two key priorities for the recording industry in China: first, the serious problem of enforcement in a market that is dominated by pirate recordings, despite increased raids undertaken and discs seized; and second, the market access barriers that continue to prevent entry for international recordings despite an increase in the number of titles officially sanctioned for release. [press release]
Posted by BIGBAER at February 12, 2005 02:03 PM
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