U.S. lawmakers to bring new visibility to global piracy problem

October 22, 2003

Piracy is everywhere and if we are to believe the
experts, international music, movie and software piracy is costing
the industry billions of dollars in sales. On Yahoo! News, thanks
to GristyMcFisty for his tip, we can
read that American lawmakers have now said that they want to bring new visibility to the problem. Via the newly formed Congressional Anti-Piracy Caucus,
the lawmakers want to strengthen intellectual-property protections through trade
agreements, diplomacy and foreign aid agreements:

"If you have 20 congresspersons going through a (foreign) capital
and everyone is raising the same question to the foreign minister, it gets
their attention," said Delaware Democratic Sen. Joseph Biden, a co-chair
of the caucus.

Though Internet-based song-swappers have
gathered more headlines in recent years, illegal CD and DVD duplication
has a much more substantial impact on a global basis.

One in three music CDs sold worldwide is
a bootleg copy, while 40 percent of the software on business computers has
not been properly purchased, according to trade-group estimates.

Lawmakers can ensure that
intellectual-property provisions are included in trade agreements, and
urge ambassadors, the State Department, the U.S. Trade Representative, and
other government officials to press the issue, caucus members said.

"It seems to me in the bargaining process
(with foreign countries) this is something that hasn't been on the
agenda," Biden said.

In the article we can also read that the countries with the highest
piracy levels are Brazil, China, Pakistan, Russia and Taiwan. Countries such as
Malaysia, Mexico and Thailand have already taken steps to discourage
illicit duplication within their borders.

Source: Yahoo! News