[10 Jun 2004]

WASHINGTON (AFP)

Pakistan, Brazil and other countries were also cited as culprits in the spread of counterfeit and pirated movies and music, at a hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The hearing by the high-profile panel marked a sign of growing concern in Washington over piracy of music, films and other creative works, which some say costs tens of billions of dollars to US industries.

"The spread of theft of America's creative works flows like a swiftly running river in every nook and cranny of this planet," Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, told the panel.

Valenti cited China and Russia, "where the problems are large and growing at an alarming rate" and where "organized criminal groups play a large role in the replication and distribution of pirated DVDs."

In both countries, "the piracy problems are spilling out beyond their borders to infect markets all around the world," Valenti told the panel.

"We also have serious piracy problems in Brazil, Pakistan, Malaysia, Taiwan and Thailand, as well as many other countries," Valenti added.

Valenti said the piracy issue is especially vexing in China, because the US entertainment industry is often barred from selling legitimate works there.

Valenti said that in 1998, the average US film distributed to Chinese cinemas on a revenue-sharing basis earned 1.9 million dollars for the US company, but by 2002 that amount had fallen to 500,000 dollars.

"In 2003, the pirates captured at least 95 percent of (the Chinese) market," he said. "The current level of piracy is worse than it has been at any time since 1995, when the rate was 100 percent."

Mitch Bainwol, chairman and chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of America, said that although dozens of countries have had music piracy problems, "four countries -- Russia, China, Brazil and Pakistan -- stand out."

Bainwol said that Russia "is the world's largest exporter of pirate CDs" and that these "are causing serious damage to the legitimate market for recorded music worldwide."

He said pirated Russian CDs have been found in more than 26 countries, and that its criminal enforcement system "has failed to stem persistent commercial piracy."

Bainwol said that Pakistan, like Russia, produces illegally copied CDs in factories and exports them worldwide. They produced 180 million discs last year, he said.

"Our industry lost 70 million dollars to piracy in Pakistan in 2003, and suffered a 100 percent piracy rate," he stated.

Valenti meanwhile said that Brazil "is beset with piracy" with one out of every three tapes or DVDs pirated.

"Our member companies lose an estimated 120 million dollars every year in Brazil to piracy," Valenti said.

"Street market sales of locally 'burned' recordable DVDs and low quality recordable CDs are ubiquitous, and Internet sales of pirated optical discs are also increasing rapidly. While Brazil has good copyright laws, their enforcement is abysmal."

Committee chairman Senator Richard Lugar said piracy is growing despite various treaties and protection under the World Trade Organization.

"Although intellectual property piracy occurs in numerous countries, the records of four nations are particularly troubling. Piracy is rampant in China, Russia, Brazil and Pakistan," Lugar said.

http://www.servihoo.com/channels/kinews/v3news_details.php?id=44535&CategoryID=46

Bainwol said that Pakistan, like Russia, produces illegally copied CDs in factories and exports them worldwide. They produced 180 million discs last year, he said.

Yet they continue to sue 12 year olds, little old women and college kids?

Poor babies....whine ...whine....whine

Oh, in their view piracy is a worse offense than violating human rights and murdering huge numbers of its population? China, which routinely monitors computer activities of its citizenry for the express purpose of harassing dissidents, journalists, pro-independence activists (for Tibet and Taiwan) and the Falun Gong (and with similar software as that used by the RIAA to harass computer users here), and has been subjected to continuous criticism by groups like Amnesty International for same, and all the RIAA and MPAA care about is their producing illegal copies of CD's and DVD's? China, to which former President Bill Clinton sold our military secrets in exchange for campaign cash, and all they care about is "piracy" originating from that country? China, which murdered some 60 million during the so-called "Cultural Revolution" of the 1960's, and all Bainwol, Valenti et al., care about is their manufacturing of counterfeit goods? Puh-leeze.

And remember what Russia USED to be: the Soviet Union. Whose methodology (along with China's) has, as has been pointed out before, adapted by the RIAA for their own selfish (and differing) purposes.

I'm surprised these alphabet-soup lobbies and their stooges didn't get around to including other similar exemplars of human rights -- notably, Cuba and North Korea -- in that list. I suppose that'll come soon enough, though . . .

And as for their suing 12-year-olds, geezers and college kids: 1) It's more "politically correct," and 2) These are amongst the "weaker" and more vulnerable sections of the U.S. population. Not to mention their preying on the poor and the rapidly vanishing "middle class."

"The spread of theft of America's creative works flows like a swiftly running river in every nook and cranny of this planet,"

makes it sound like a plauge that'll destroy mankind.

It's easier to go after the young and poor because they are defensless. Russia has all these wonderful anti piracy laws from what I've heard so they should focus on exerting influence with their counterparts over there just like they're doing in europe.

Yes, by all means complain to the US Government. Get them to pass a law making it illegal for Russia and China to do these things. What? Our laws stop at our borders? Watchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?

YES Compmore the flood gates are wide open and the majors are about to get their ass washed away ohhhhhh soooooo sad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, there is a reason why there is so much piracy in russia. People simply have no money to buy legit music. I mean, if in us some people say that $14 for a cd is too much, in russia its way too much. And then again, piracy is not the biggest problem compared to others(terrorism, checnya etc). By the way, by Russian laws they are perfectly legit, because there is a little trick in law:
Pirates are taking money only for the production and materials they used to make cd, and not for the content.

BTW. They forgot Israel, we have lots of pirated discs. And even more, the DVD Players here are all multizone.

So they just want to burden countries that are at poverty levels. Yeah I am pretty sure that with all the economic burdens going on in those places, their governments are going to drop everything and make the almighty CD their main concern.

Jack Valenti and Mitch Bainwol are busy men...always testifying somewhere in this country. If they maintain that their greatest losses (lack of sales) are in foreign countries due to the black market production of DVD's and CD's for a cheap price, why continue this legal extortion campaign against music lovers and customers who are trading files?
Not that many people in the U.S. have settled with the RIAA. Not much revenue has been generated from it. It's not helping the artists. They are battling against their own customers. The only winners are the lawyers who represent the RIAA. And I intend to continue my boycott against their products.

This article is one of the worst articles I've seen, considering the usage of the words "piracy" and "pirated". Those two words occur in almost every sentence - 19 times throughout the article.

Here's what the U.S. government says...
http://cryptome.org/ustr050304.htm

Congress could care less about piracy in China and Russia. They have more important political issues thats hanging in balance especially with China. The RIAA is looking like cry babies or spoiled brats and I think Congress is getting tired of this.

Well, I would rather the RIAA focus on this instead of messing with this fair use rights of Americans. At least this time they are complaining about those who actually ARE violating copyright protections by COMMERCIALLY SELLING copies of product. Unfortunately for the RIAA and the industry, these foreign bootleg outfits are not subject to the protections (nor the laws) granted U.S. citizens. In this instance, the only thing the U.S. could do is in regards to trade relations with those countries. Something along the lines of "we ain't gonna buy as much of your caviar/martini umbrellas if you don't crack down on the bootleg sale of American films and music" sort of thing.

If it were only the actual commercial bootleggers that the MPAA/RIAA/BSA were after, I wouldn't be as opposed to them as I am. There are some good reasons to have copyright/patent laws... it is very unfortunate that the abuses outweigh those good uses, and it is a shame that they have gone way beyond reason.

Shmoo, of Electric Gypsy
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