Just my opinion, but I can't help thinking that if CDs were priced more reasonably, and if artists were treated more fairly, a lot of these piracy problems could have been avoided. It seems that the RIAA just isn't getting it. They see that pirated music is being purchased left and right at prices significantly lower those of new CDs, yet it still doesn't click that CDs are overpriced.

I'm also troubled by this comment "A little bit of culture perishes each day that governments fail to extend effective copyright protection to the works of creators." Am I mistaken in thinking that the copyright holders are, in most cases, entities such as the record companies? not the artists themselves? Using that logic, the RIAA is saying that they are, in fact, the "creators". If I'm wrong, please correct me.

Washington - The Recording Industry Association of America, (RIAA), in conjunction with its sister organizations representing the film, business and entertainment software, and book publishing industries, today filed a report with the Office of the US Trade Representative outlining issues affecting copyright protection in 64 countries.

Certain themes dominated today's filing--most notably concerns about growing CD-R replication, the involvement of organized criminal syndicates in the manufacture and international distribution of pirate CDs and other optical media, and internet piracy.

The RIAA urges the Administration to redouble its efforts to stop the theft of US copyrighted materials in foreign markets, including by imposing economic sanctions or withdrawing trade benefits where countries fail to take reasonable steps to afford adequate and effective protection. As Hilary Rosen testified to earlier this week in front of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, "The future of American competitiveness in Intellectual Property is wholly dependent upon achieving adequate and effective protection and enforcement for creative works in global markets. The Congress, together with the Administration, should communicate directly with world leaders about the importance that the United States government attaches to effective copyright protection?both on and off line."

"The US record industry is a critical part of the US economy, and is a cornerstone of US economic competitiveness in the 21st century. Today's Special 301 filing provides our recommendations to the US Government for their involvement in the protection of American copyrighted materials in foreign markets. We urge the US Government to use all available tools to achieve these goals," stated Neil Turkewitz, Executive Vice President of RIAA.

Turkewitz continued: "In addition we hope that today's report will help to ignite a passion for improved enforcement around the world, thereby fostering a new era of economic and cultural development and competitiveness. It is not only US works that are affected by piracy. A little bit of culture perishes each day that governments fail to extend effective copyright protection to the works of creators. Society bears the long term costs for these failures. "

Some highlights of the submission include: 1- A request to maintain Ukraine's designation as a Priority Foreign Country (PFC). Ukraine was designated as a PFC last year, and in 2001, USTR withdrew Ukraine's GSP benefits, and imposed $75 million in economic sanctions. Ukraine has taken some steps to address the problem of pirate CD production and export, but these have thus far failed to adequately resolve the situation. Until Ukraine has satisfactorily addressed this problem, we will continue to press the Administration to keep the sanctions in effect;

2-A request to elevate Brazil and Pakistan to the Priority Watch List (PWL), and to keep a number of other countries on the PWL, including Dominican Republic, Egypt, Indonesia, Lebanon, Philippines, Russia and Taiwan. Brazil continues to be one of the largest pirate marketplaces in the world, and has not responded to a piracy situation that is threatening the very existence of the record industry in that country. Pakistan, Indonesia, Philippines, Russia and Taiwan are home to large scale enterprises involved in the manufacture and global distribution of pirate CDs, and we call upon each of these countries to adopt legal and enforcement controls over the operations of these plants. The markets in Dominican Republic, Egypt and Lebanon are completely dominated by piracy, and we urge these governments to take immediate steps to bring order to the marketplace by taking aggressive and sustained actions against pirates;

3-A request for USTR to continue to monitor China's and Paraguay's compliance with IPR agreements reach ed with the United States. China has done a commendable job in addressing pirate production for export, but the internal market continues to be dominated by piracy. Paraguay too has taken certain actions, but it continues to be a hotbed of piracy and a source of infringing materials for Brazil and its other Mercosur partners. China and Paraguay must build on the past but improve their performance to achieve compliance with their bilateral obligations.

Story taken from here

************************************************

A full copy of the report filed can be found here.

Here is a link to a press release issued by the IIPA (International Intellectual Property Alliance) in regards to the Ukraine and other countries. The report outlines estimated losses per country due to piracy. You will need Adobe's Acrobat Reader to view it. Click here to download it.

MORE...from me (OJ)

As I was driving home just now, I got to thinking. The RIAA regularly lumps downloading/sharing music into the category of piracy. How then, do they measure losses due to downloads? For example, If I download the latest Linkin Park hit, how would they measure their loss due to my download? Or would they even incur a loss? I suppose they could take the price of the entire CD, divide it by the number of tracks and get an estimated loss per track. Well, that wouldn't work cause Linkin Park's latest hit song will certainly generate more revenue for them than say, a crappy song on the same album. Is the hit song worth the same amount (monetarily) as the crappy one? More valuable? Less valuable?

To quote from an explanation of the methodology used to calculate losses, "The numbers produced by the music industry generally reflect the value of sales of pirate product rather than industry losses and therefore undervalue the real harm to the interests of record companies, music publishers, performers, musicians, songwriters and composers." Ahhh...I see, so they "generally" don't include losses due to downloads. Why do they not include them? Are they incalculable? Or are they not there? Bah, my head hurts trying to figure this out.

If they want to talk about my country, which they indirectly did, I'd suggest they go to the triple fronteer. I can not bare they treat as as smugglers.

Oh yes, first post!

i got a letter in the mail today from the RIAA that said "Join us or die"

I got another one from the RIAA. It said: "backmann, I am your father. Join us or die. Come to the dark side. It is your destiny."

like you've said in the past, frawg, they may never get it.

My therory is that they get it all to well, and are doing everything in their power to confuse and discourage any possible competition with litigation (Napster and about 100 others), legislation (DMCA), misrepresentation of the facts (every time Hilary testifies in front of Congress) while they maintain the control of the distribution a while longer. (about 1.3 BILLION per month). But then again, I'm an optimist

Ongoing boycott of new discs since October . I suppose I have let 30-40 discs find their way to the used bins before I would take a 1st look .

There are bootleg discs in South Carolina, I have seen them being sold from 3.00-8.00 and people were buying them like they were going out of style! Cool thing, shrink wrapped and with album art too.

wEEEEEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeeeee..... it's bash the RIAA day... lets celebrate shall we?? I've done too much typing in a few similar news posts to do serious ranting in this one. Well lets break out the champell n root beer n supreme pizza n cheesesteaks shall we?? (>'_')>-~

Need to change each instance of "American Competitiveness" to "American Dominance".. or so it would seem to me. Good point about the "incalculability" of download losses, I've often wondered about that myself. I mean.. SOMEONE bought the cd right?
I'm kinda wondering exactly WHO these people that run the RIAA are.. and what their bank accounts look like.. seems to me (and again, I'm agreeing with something that was posted) that if the actual creators of the works, ie the ARTISTS had bank accounts as big, we'd see a lot more of them saying screw you RIAA.. but.. alas.. money means more than people these days..just my opinion, I've got another if you don't like that one.