International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) asks the US Administration to place India under watch for piracy [India]

A group of American copyright trade associations has asked the US to put India, along with a dozen other nations including Pakistan and China, on its 'Priority Watch List' for intellectual property violations.
The recommendation has been made by the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) -- a coalition of seven trade associations representing American copyright-based industries -- to the office of US Trade Representative.
The 13 countries, which have been recommended by the IIPA to be placed in 'Priority Watch List' in 2009, include Argentina, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia and Thailand.
In its report on India to the USTR, the IIPA has said that "piracy, physical, Internet and over mobile devices worsened in 2008".
"With the US economy shedding jobs at an alarming rate, our government needs to redouble it efforts to stem massive global theft of US-copyrighted works in physical form and on the Internet," IIPA said in a statement.
"Piracy causes significant economic losses to our country, undermining industries and companies that historically have generated new jobs at a rate two to three times greater than that of our economy as a whole," it noted.
According to IIPA, India suffered an estimated trade loss of 1.09 billion dollars in 2008 due to copyright piracy. The same stood at 1.19 billion dollars in the year-ago period.
It also pointed out that in India, "while pockets of some progress can be in the enforcement system, it remains ineffective to deter piracy".
Placing a trading partner country of the US under the 'watch list' indicates that there are particular problems with respect to intellectual property rights protection, enforcement or market access for people relying on IP.
Further, nations coming under the 'Priority Watch List' would be the main focus of bilateral attention related to the problematic areas.
The member associations of the Washington-based IIPA represent more than 1,900 US companies producing and distributing materials protected by copyright laws worldwide including computer and entertainment software, theatrical films, television programmes and music.
The seven associations that are part of IIPA are Association of American Publishers, Business Software Alliance, Entertainment Software Association, Independent Film & Television Alliance, Motion Picture of America, National Music Publishers' Association and Recording Industry Association of America.
The IIPA's submission discusses copyright piracy, the legal and enforcement reforms needed to fight it and other market access barriers in 48 countries.
The IIPA's review of the 'Special 301' report for 2009 on Copyright Protection and Enforcement has asked the American government to place 39 out of the total 48 to be named to an "appropriate USTR watch list".
The US government's 'Special 301' report pertains to intellectual property protection and market access issues in foreign countries.
"The US creative industries -- business and entertainment software, film, television and home video entertainment, music and recording, and book and journal publishing -- are important drivers of the US economy, contributing substantially to domestic growth and employment, including over 110 billion dollars annually in revenue from foreign trade," it said.
IIPA has also called for greater global law enforcement cooperation to tackle piracy.

WIPO for private-public role to fight software piracy in India

The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), a specialised agency of UN, has said that the best solution to stop the software piracy in India, which has reportedly led to a loss of about two billion dollars in revenue last year, is public-private coordination.

Software piracy is a huge problem in India. As a result of which many global computer giants are facing the heat worldwide. The best possible way to put an end to software piracy in India is a close coordinated scheme between private and public sectors in the country, Director of Copyright Law at WIPO Jorgen Blomgvist told PTI.

A study by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), an international association representing the global software industry, in May showed that computer software piracy rates in India registered huge monetary losses in 2007.

Virtual bites: Digital piracy and Bollywood [India]

On a trip to Helsinki in Finland, Rajjat Barjatya stumbled upon 15,000 Indian families who had regular access to Bollywood movies even when no production house was distributing them there.
"The families were paying monthly rent to a website that delivered the latest pirated Bollywood content," says Barjatya, who figured that the Indian entertainment sector was being plagiarised and producers who were spending millions on marketing and publicity were being robbed, virtually.

"There was a huge gap in demand and supply of Bollywood content to NRIs settled all over the globe," adds Barjatya, the managing director of Rajshri Media, the digital arm of Rajshri Productions.

Today, Barjatya is doing a roaring business among the NRI population settled in the US, UK and Canada. Success speaks for Barjatya. Rajshri's blockbuster film Hum Aapke Hain Kaun has been viewed over 500,000 times till date and can be downloaded for $4.99.

The website hosts over 6,000 hours of premium video content, all of which has been licensed from India's leading content owners and can be streamed free, ad-supported and downloaded at a nominal price between $4.99 and $9.99.

Barjatya has also unveiled 90 webisodes and mobisodes, of three minutes each, that will be available for free online streaming and as mobile downloads for Idea subscribers.

Piracy of intellectual property is not new to the media and entertainment sector. However, the scale of the problem is definitely new-fangled. A recent study estimates that the Indian entertainment industry loses $4 billion and more than 800,000 jobs each year because of piracy.
Not ready to give up on digital distribution just yet, entertainment majors such as Rajshri Media, UTV, YashRaj Studios, and Shemaroo Entertainment, among many others, are slowly building their digital roadmaps to tap the 5 million broadband-connected homes in India.

"First with music, and now with movies, as broadband capabilities expand, hundreds of thousands of copies race across the Internet daily, clearly harming producers and legitimate retailers," laments Siddharth Roy Kapur, CEO, UTV Motion Pictures.

In the US, the largest market for both Bollywood and non-Bollywood content, there are about 200,000 Indian millionaires, with some 15 per cent of Silicon Valley start-ups believed to be owned by Indians, according to a report by JPMorgan. UTV, informs Kapur, will look to target the overseas customers first with its digital offering.

Filmed entertainment executives have only to look at the music industry to see the dangers of insufficient action — take digital piracy seriously or lose billions as well as fundamental control of the value chain.

Barjatya probably read the warning signals in 2006. He released Rajshri's film Vivah online back in 2006 expanding his distribution for the 25 million Indians spread across the globe. "Physically reaching so many people is not possible and yet these are affluent NRI households with an appetite for Indian cinema. So, the Internet is the best medium to supply cinema as close to 51 per cent of NRI households have broadband access," mentions Barjatya.

Thanks to broadband penetration, digital theft has become free or costs as much as a writeable CD. Kapur acknowledges and says, "The rising number of user-generated sites like YouTube has made it easier to share videos. We do send notices to websites hosting illegal content and they respond favourably by taking off the content."

But the rising number of video-hosting sites also means that it is virtually impossible to keep track of illegal videos. Even as India's box office revenues are expected to swell up to $7.4 billion by 2010, according to PricewaterhouseCooper estimates, the downloaded content can garner more than $1.4 billion for the producers.

UTV is already rethinking its pricing strategy and release schedules for its online consumer by tightening digital distribution and security to control data leaks.

"We are working with technology companies to develop workable online distribution and rights management systems and to create easy-to-use channels at the right price," he says.

Technology can be a big help for the industry. Rising acceptance of peer-to-peer (P2P) networks among youth allows them access to one anothers' hard drives, enabling files to be freely copied or distributed from one computer to another. P2P networks do not use a central server and hence are difficult to track down, disable or prosecute.

For instance, when The Matrix Reloaded was released, pirates used a file-sharing computer programme called BitTorrent that let digital thieves download films for free within three hours of its release.

Rana Gupta, business head, Safenet, explains, "The impact of such incidents on a film's ultimate box-office and DVD performance is hard to gauge, but the longer you can prevent a scenario like this the better the return on investment for a studio."

Earlier this year, Ratatouille, the animated film from Walt Disney's Pixar, made its way online about 10 days before its release. Safenet's MediaSentry services help the studios in infringement management, early leak identification services, and various business intelligence tools to analyse data online.

"MediaSentry enables content producers to track down websites infringing copyrighted data," Gupta says. Simply put, Safenet's proprietary technology gets the digital addresses of those who download illegal files and this information is given to the Internet service providers (ISPs), which can ask the customer to stop.

Legal action has closed some sites that connect users with pirated movies. Motion Picture Association of America won its battle with TorrentSpy, a peer-to-peer site that is now closed. But Pirate Bay, a similar Sweden-based service, is still running. Pirate Bay creators say it is merely a platform and is neither uploading nor downloading proprietary content.

Back in India, Rajshri Media uses digital media rights (DRM) protection to prevent illegitimate duplication of its content, it isn't exactly foolproof. "We are focusing on bridging the demand gap and haven't really invested in protecting content from bootleggers. But we are evaluating various software techniques to make the Internet a more secure medium of distribution," adds Barjatya. It looks like a long way before Barjatya and Kapur can cast a virtual safety net over their digital assets. No one expects to eliminate piracy. But given that a film's opening weekend often accounts for 60 to 70 per cent of its earnings, every day's delay in the availability of pirated copies can make a big financial difference.

Bobby Bedi blames law enforcement agencies for piracy [India]

A veteran Bollywood filmmaker has said that problems of piracy and counterfeiting were plaguing the Indian entertainment and blamed the law enforcement agencies for the scenario.
Ahead of the World Intellectual Property Day on Saturday, filmmaker Bobby Bedi slammed the government of India for poor enforcement of the "great laws" to curb piracy.

"Today in Bombay, for example, you could go to jail for a night for talking on your mobile phone while driving. But if you are caught with cable piracy, it is not so easy to prosecute. There is no sense in having a law that cannot be enforced," Bedi said.

"But that is India's problem in so many areas. We have great laws and not so great enforcement," Bedi said.

Bedi's remarks assumes significance in view of a recent study by Ernst & Young showing that the Indian entertainment industry was losing $ 4 billion a year, representing almost 40 per cent of their potential annual revenue, due to piracy and counterfeiting.

"Tonight we hear the story of one filmmaker who has made a tremendous contribution to India's burgeoning entertainment industry. He represents one of the thousands of filmmakers around the world who are victims of piracy," said California Congresswoman Diane Watson.

Michael P. Ryan, director of the Creative and Innovative Economy at the GW Law School, argued that originality and innovation are essential to driving long-term growth in developing economies and that piracy creates a real dilemma for filmmakers like Bedi as it curtails their imagination.

"So long as pirates earn a high share of movie revenues, producers must focus on making relatively inexpensive movies. To finance a grander vision, the creators must receive not just the critical but also the monetary rewards of inventiveness.

"The Indian film industry is the largest in the world with more than 1,000 films produced each year," Ryan said.

Bedi is critically acclaimed for his work in films, including Bandit Queen, Fire and Saathya. He is now producing a three-film series on the Indian legend, the Mahabharata, at an estimated cost of $ 70 million. It will be India's most expensive movie venture ever.

According to a report India's television industry loses $ 2.68 billion and as many as 820,000 direct jobs are also lost as a result of theft and piracy.

Ringtones, downloading and 'illegalities" [India]

If you are downloading a Bollywood ring tune on your mobile phone, you might be violating the copyright act; and the Indian Music Industry plans to take action on it. Over 13,000 cases of intellectual property right violation, mostly physical music piracy, were registered in the country in the past seven years and more than 200 cases of mobile chip piracy detected in the last two years, says IMI President V J Lazarus.

While mobile phone chips have joined the ranks as an instrument for physical form of piracy, public performance of the music and songs, which generally go unnoticed, also comes under the ambit of the law.

But lack of awareness has prevented law-enforcing agencies from dealing with the problem that results in losses of Rs 600-800 crore to the industry every year, Lazarus said.

India ranked 10th in the list of countries affected by piracy and with the current boom in the mobile entertainment segment, its market would encompass over 300 million users, he said.

Section 51 (a) of the Indian Copyright Act clearly states music cannot be played without permission of the copyright holder.

This means music-driven trade outlets like discotheques, hotels organising public music-based functions like New Year parties, coffee shops relying on instrumental or vocal pieces or even the barber shop playing a Bollywood number might be violating the law if they don’t procure proper licences, he said.

“IMI, which represents around 142 music companies, is not concentrating on small-time outlets violating the law at present, due to lack of awareness. But, larger establishments like a lavish hotels or a bustling disco joints are certainly our targets,” Lazarus said.

“We try to inform and convince them the violation and motivate them to procure legitimate licences. If they still refrain from doing so, legal action is taken,” he said.

With the current boom in the ‘mobile entertainment segment’, Indian market is expected to reach more than 300 million users making it among the top ten countries in the world in terms of mobile density.

This market would grow further with the advent of 3G (third generation) service phones opening newer avenues of possible intellectual property theft by way of Caller Ring Back Caller Service (CRBT), Embedded tones, background music, full track downloads, mobile radio and streaming and downloading of music, which bring joy and listening pleasure to the consumers, Lazarus said.

IMI, which issues licenses through its wings Indian Phonographic Ltd (PPL) and Indian Performing Rights Society (IPRS), has tied up with all telecom operators for legitimate use of music, he said.

Licenses have been issued to radio stations, television broadcasters (including those showing some new-age music-based reality shows) and big portals allowing streaming and downloading of music on the internet, IMI General Secretary Savio D’Souza said.

IMI’s internet anti-piracy team, while closely working with International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), has managed to close 500 sites, mostly based on servers in the USA, he said.

U.S. Attorney General: Piracy Funds Terror [International]

Piracy funds terrorism, says U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey, and the Department of Justice is going to do something about it.

“While we celebrate the positive contributions of technology, we can't forget that there's a dark side to almost every innovation,” said Mukasey at the Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, “Every new technology we create can be abused – whether it's a common identity thief looking for a new way to steal your bank account information, or an international terrorist looking to advance a murderous plot.”

The Justice Department is committed to protecting the USA’s valuable intellectual property rights, said Mukasey, who promoted Deputy Attorney General and department official “number two” Mark Filip to the head of its IP Task Force, which is stepping up efforts in worldwide collaboration.

“International borders pose little hindrance to criminals, so we’ve been working to make sure those borders don’t pose an obstacle to effective enforcement,” he said.

Originally the domain of organized crime, terrorists are finding piracy – with its supposedly low level of risk – to be a tempting way to finance other, less aboveboard activities. “A primary goal of our IP enforcement mission is to show these criminals that they’re wrong.”

Those involved in piracy, counterfeiting, and identity theft certainly have something to worry about: 2007 saw a 33 percent increase in IP cases filed over 2005, a product of the Department’s ever-increasing international network, which now includes satellite offices in Bulgaria and Thailand to coordinate and train local enforcement efforts.

“One ongoing case resulted from years of diplomatic work with law enforcement in China, and an extensive investigation involving Chinese authorities and the FBI,” said Mukasey. “Last July, China’s Ministry of Public Security arrested 25 Chinese nationals and seized more than half a billion dollars worth of counterfeit software in the largest joint investigation ever conducted by the FBI and the People’s Republic of China.”

Historically, the Justice Department generally pursues criminal charges for IP theft where money changes hands, leaving file-sharing and the world of P2P to the graces of the content industry and its ongoing campaign of civil litigation. This comes despite frequent political efforts from content industry lobbyists, who have been trying for years to enact legislation that would essentially force the DoJ to pursue all forms of piracy – lumping Russian handbag counterfeiters and 15-year-old top-40 aficionados in the same boat.

Prior to the speech, Mukasey said he met privately with representatives from Hollywood, Adobe and Apple, but declined to say what was discussed.

The Pirates of the Arabian? In a first, Bollywood and Hollywood versus the Pirates [India]

According to the first Bollywood-Hollywood collaborative study conducted by the US-India Business Council (USIBC) and the US Chamber's Global Intellectual Property Centre, piracy and counterfeiting is depriving the Indian entertainment industry of approximately Rs 16,240 crore every year. This is almost 40 per cent of potential annual revenue, and, according to some analysts, is only a conservative estimate of the actual losses faced by the industry.

While India's entertainment and media industry is the fastest growing among BRIC nations, it is also the smallest. Many believe that stricter control on piracy could give the industry the impetus it needs to become truly global. Aside from the loss of revenue, the report also estimates that over eight lakh people lose their jobs due to piracy each year.

Though India is badly affected by piracy, it is certainly not the only country facing this problem. The US entertainment industry, it is estimated, loses about $6 billion a year in movie revenues alone. The Motion Picture Association of America's efforts notwithstanding, attempts to regulate piracy in the US have not achieved much.

In India's case, the music industry seems to have suffered the worst, with piracy resulting in a 64 per cent loss in total potential revenues, while the movie industry loses about 31 per cent. Industry officials in both countries hope to be able to use the study to pressure the government into adopting stringent anti-piracy measures and protecting intellectual property through strict legislation.

Piracy is, of course, not a new phenomenon. Every new medium is accompanied by intellectual property theft, which is almost impossible to regulate. Copyright was violated routinely in the US in the 18th and 19th centuries. The VCR was viewed with panic in its initial years of release. And so it is with the internet. However, digital media complicates the matter because no physical medium is required to transfer and distribute content. The ease and reach of distribution is also unprecedented. Perhaps the best way to fight piracy is via the same channels through which it has prospered — new technology. A host of innovations, from region-encoded DVD players and coding preventing the copying of digital data, to one-time view DVDs, can be utilised to combat piracy. Another way to fight piracy could be to reduce the prices at which content is sold. Because of the low cost of the medium, high quality content can be sold on disks that cost almost as little as the pirated versions. Such innovative solutions could be the answer to piracy and counterfeiting that the Indian industry is searching for.

Piracy in India – industry losses at $4 bn [Innovations in IT help counterfeiters cross geographical limits]

Piracy and counterfeiting are growing and deprived the Indian entertainment industry of some $4 billion (Rs16,240 crore), or almost 40% of potential annual revenues, as well as around 820,000 jobs, according to the first Bollywood-Hollywood collaborative study. Industry officials in both the US and India hope to use the study’s findings to call for stricter legislation and tougher policing of the grey market, part of a joint attack on piracy.

Losses to the industry from the trade in illegal CDs, DVDs, music downloads and cable television account for 38% of total potential sales, or $4 billion, an increase from the 25-30% leakage estimated in the prior year period, according to a joint report by the US-India Business Council (USIBC) and the US Chamber’s Global Intellectual Property Centre.

Titled "The Effects of Piracy and Counterfeiting on India’s Entertainment Industry", the report argues that efforts to curb piracy in India’s $11 billion entertainment industry have been hampered by the lack of a cohesive strategy.

Interpol creates database for Intellectual Property crimes [International]

In a bid to curtail intellectual property (IP) crimes, the Interpol has joined hands with the US Chamber of Commerce to create a full-fledged database for all the member-countries. This was announced here Tuesday by Interpol general secretary Ron Noble while addressing the second Annual Global Forum on Innovation, Creativity and Intellectual Property.

He added that a trial database for IP crimes was launched 15 months back with 18 member-countries sending information. This has now increased to 54 members. “The decision to launch a database for IP crimes was taken following the success of the pilot project for a database launched for stolen passports,” Noble said on the sidelines of the conference.

He said IP criminals were smart and well resourced, with in-depth knowledge about each country. “The Interpol database can play an important role if all the industries and countries send in information about these crimes,” he added.

David Chavern, executive vice-president and chief operating officer of the US Chamber of Commerce, said: “Our task is to engage and defeat our opponents and ensure that global growth is not derailed by the appropriation of ideas that individuals and companies paid for with their time, energy and money.”

He added that the partnership between the Interpol and US Chamber of Commerce would tackle the problem, which has so far been perceived to be unsolvable. According to a study conducted by the Interpol, around 10 percent of all the products sold in the world are counterfeit.

“Any product that is desirable among the public is pirated and counterfeited,” Chavern said.
Noble added: “If your product is not pirated or counterfeited then it is not popular.” The two-day forum organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) in collaboration with the US Chamber of Commerce and the Interpol is an opportunity for industry leaders from around the world to discuss and make substantive progress on issues like judicial remedies for IP infringement, IP protection in a digital age and consumer education and awareness. The forum is being held in India as this country is an easy target for IP crimes.

“For example, Bollywood is suffering tremendously with pirated movie CDs and DVDs,” said George Newton, deputy general secretary of Interpol. Asked whether Interpol would do something about the money laundering in IP crimes, Noble said: “Although chasing the money is important, first we need to identify the criminals.” Delegates from Brazil, China, France, Ireland, Singapore, Japan and the US are attending the conference.

China imposes stiff penalties for online piracy

New regulations go into effect July 1 in China targeting distributors of unauthorized content online. The regulations, which carry a maximum administrative fine of approximately US$12,000, target search engines like Baidu, which are the backbone of online file sharing in China, as millions of users can search the various Chinese search engines for links to thousands of unauthorized copies of songs and movies.

Bloomberg.com quotes one analyst as saying that “Baidu will be under a lot of pressure to stop offering links to illegal MP3 files and may have to stop their MP3 search service.” Stop offering links to illegal MP3 files? I don’t see it. Providing links to unauthorized content is a cornerstone of Chinese search engine revenue–not just for Baidu, but for all the Chinese search engines. A $12,000 fine is not going to intimidate any search engine; they’ll just chalk it up to the cost of doing business.

But they’re painted into a corner, and effectively, copyright owners have forced their hand. These search engines want to go legit and play ball with copyright owners. But if Baidu were to give up its MP3 links, as the analyst quoted above suggests, they’d be committing suicide. The other Chinese search engines would gladly take Baidu’s share of the music search traffic, administrative fines and all. Copyright owners are not going to win a shoving match with search engines.

But, in the words of Obi Wan Kenobi, “You can’t win. But there are alternatives to fighting.” For example, search engines have offered to give copyright owners a portion of their ad revenue in return for licensing the content, but the major entertainment companies will have none of it. Some Chinese record companies–like Taihe Rye, a successful domestic Chinese label–recognize that online piracy is a fact of life and business, so Taihe has made special arrangements with Baidu to clamp down on pirate links for the first two weeks after a new release. This allows Taihe to capture the majority of its expected revenue from a release while not eviscerating Baidu’s revenue or market share. $12,000 fines won’t do it. Frankly, even bigger penalties are unlikely to have much effect. But copyright owners have alternatives.