The IIPA submission discusses copyright protection, enforcement, and market access problems in 51 countries/territories, of which it recommended that 43 be placed on an appropriate USTR watch list.

The report also discussed piracy and market access problems in an additional eight countries, but did not recommend that these countries be placed on any formal list. Finally, the IIPA submission described key challenges and initiatives that define the copyright industries’ trade agenda for 2008.

Commenting on this year’s Special 301 process, IIPA’s Eric H. Smith noted that:

“The annual Special 301 process continues to be an important tool to bring to the attention of our trading partners the importance of high levels of protection for, and strong enforcement against piracy of, copyrighted works, both to the U.S. economy and to the economies of these countries."

"US business and entertainment software, movies and home video entertainment, music and recordings, and books and journals continue to be an important driver of the US economy -- contributing almost 13% to US economic growth in 2005.”

This year’s submission in particular reflects the copyright industries’ grave concern with the explosive growth of
online and mobile piracy. To meet this challenge, IIPA members are pressing for enhanced international norms, more effective and deterrent enforcement of those norms, and greater global law enforcement cooperation.

Smith went on to add that:

“Canada joins China and Russia this year as countries of the greatest concern to the copyright industries. While there have been a few positive developments in these key markets over the year, the bottom line is that
piracy levels have not come down at all or only marginally, and in some countries the situation has grown worse.”

As a result of the deficiencies in the copyright regimes of these surveyed countries/territories, the IIPA reported trade losses and piracy levels for some copyright industry sectors this year on a country-by-country and industry-by-industry basis.

For just the 51 countries surveyed in the submission, estimated losses to all copyright industries totalled $18.4
billion in 2007. On a global basis (that is, in all countries including the US and including countries not on IIPA’s 301 list), IIPA conservatively estimated that total losses due to piracy were at least $30-35 billion in 2007, not counting significant losses due to Internet piracy, for which meaningful estimates are not yet available.

The key recommendations of the IIPA report included:

Priority Watch List:

The IIPA recommended that the People’s Republic of China remain on the Priority Watch List. It suggested that engagement with China has been multifaceted during 2007, including the US government’s commencement of two cases before the WTO challenging certain of China’s IPR and market access practices in addition to other ongoing bilateral dialogues and industry-to-government discussions.

However, it argued that China’s many campaigns and enforcement actions have in most cases had little deterrent effect in the marketplace, and piracy rates remain at very high levels.

IIPA also recommended that Russia remain on the Priority Watch List. While it signed a comprehensive, binding
IPR agreement with the US in 2006, Russia has not yet fully implemented that agreement, and enforcement continues to be a major deficiency in the Russian IPR regime.

Russia’s copyright piracy problem remains one of the most serious in the world, according to the IIPA. Piracy rates for some sectors continued at over 70% in 2007, resulting in "staggering losses" to the local and US
industries.

It further suggested that Canada merits inclusion on the Priority Watch List, announcing that:

"Alone among developed economies in the OECD, Canada has taken no meaningful steps toward modernizing its copyright law to meet the global minimum standards of the WIPO Internet Treaties, which it signed more than a decade ago."

"In 2007, the parliamentary leadership and the government, at the highest levels, acknowledged many of these deficiencies, and the government listed copyright reform among its top legislative priorities. But these encouraging statements have not yet evolved into anything more concrete."

IIPA recommended that a further 13 countries be placed on the Priority Watch List in 2008: Argentina, Canada, Chile, Costa Rica, Egypt, India, Mexico, People’s Republic of China, Peru, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and Ukraine.

Watch List:

The IIPA asked the USTR to place (or maintain) 29 countries/territories on the Watch List.

New countries which IIPA would like to see added to the Watch List this year included: Spain, Greece, Sweden, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Brunei, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Kazakhstan.

Although the IIPA commended Paraguay for its efforts (including cooperation with industry, plus raids and seizures), few concrete and systemic results in combating high piracy levels have been achieved. Therefore, it recommended that the USTR continue to monitor developments in Paraguay under Section 306 of the Trade Act of 1974.

Out-of-Cycle Reviews:

IIPA requested that USTR later this year conduct out-of-cycle reviews of three countries to evaluate their progress on the issues identified in the submission: Italy, Philippines, and Thailand.

IIPA’s “Special Mention” Countries:

Although IIPA is not recommending these countries for placement on a Special 301 list, it urged the USTR to give heightened bilateral attention to eight additional countries which pose specific problems for US industry. These are Bulgaria, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Jordan, New Zealand, Singapore, and Switzerland.