US Lawmakers Unveil Piracy Watchlist

by Glen Shapiro, LawAndTax-News.com, New York

21 May 2010

China, Russia, Canada, Spain, and Mexico have been placed on the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus 2010 International Piracy Watch List, which highlights countries where copyright piracy has reached "alarming levels."

In a May 19 announcement, the Caucus also highlighted the problem of websites hosted overseas that provide access to unauthorized copies of works made by US copyright holders.  China's Baidu, Canada's IsoHunt, Ukraine's mp3fiesta, Germany's RapidShare, Luxembourg's RMX4U.com and Sweden's The Pirate Bay were identified as priority sites. 

"International piracy of American intellectual property weakens a segment of our economy that long has supported innovation and great American jobs," said Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, co-chair of the caucus.  "Congress must work on a bipartisan basis to protect the creative industries and the jobs they support.  The United States has been on the losing end of the largest theft of intellectual property in history.  This must be stopped, and soon."

It is no surprise that countries such as Russia and China have been placed on the watch list, but Senator Orrin Hatch finds it "stunning" that high levels of piracy also appear to be taking place in Canada and Mexico, America's largest trading partners.  "Now is the time for policymakers to come together to tackle this global threat that cripples economic growth and stifles the innovation that has made our nation great," he commented.

"It is tempting to think of crimes involving piracy, or intellectual property theft, as victimless, but this is simply untrue," added Congressman Bob Goodlatte. "Piracy denies individuals who have invested in the creation and production of these goods a return on their investment thus reducing the incentive to invest in innovative products and new creative works.  The end result is the loss of billions of dollars in revenue for the US each year and even greater losses to the US economy in terms of reduced job growth and exports.  Not only is the problem of piracy plaguing US creators but it has become a global epidemic.  We must encourage other countries to enact and enforce strong intellectual property laws in order to fully protect America's inventors and authors, as well as their own." 

Last month, the Office of the US Trade Representative released its annual 'Special 301' report on the adequacy and effectiveness of US trading partners’ protection of intellectual property rights (IPR), which again highlighted the prominence of IPR concerns with regards to lax enforcement of IP laws in China.

The report identified a wide range of serious concerns, ranging from the problems of piracy and counterfeiting in China. US Trade Representative Ron Kirk was also critical of China's ‘indigenous innovation’ procurement policies.

The USTR also intends to review legal regimes in the Philippines and Thailand to monitor progress on specific IPR issues. However, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland were removed from the Special 301 watch list after having taken "significant steps to clamp down on piracy and counterfeiting" in the eyes of the US administration.

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