Organized crime syndicates are being funded from the proceeds of music piracy, states the UK-based IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry).

One in three of all CDs sold worldwide is a fake and at US$4.6 billion, the global pirate music market is of greater value than the legitimate music market of every country in the world, except the USA and Japan, says the IFPI in its Commercial Piracy Report 2003

On its top-ten list of countries mosty affected are: Brazil, China, Mexico, Paraguay, Poland, Russia, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand and Ukraine.

Number One in terms of piracy is China where more than 90% of all recordings are pirate, worth over US$530 million, "despite the country's accession to the World Trade Organisation," says the IFPI, going on:

"Russia, Brazil and Mexico also stand out among worst-affected markets, with massive sales of pirate music that far exceed their legitimate markets."

It also says:

* Taiwan and Thailand have huge disc manufacturing overcapacity, which fuels CD piracy;
* Spain is Europe's fastest-growing problem territory;
* Poland's Warsaw Stadium is a massive illegal black market where enforcement remains weak;
* Paraguay is the gateway for massive pirate imports and exports for South America; and,
* Ukraine remains a priority country with poor enforcement and very high levels of domestic piracy, despite the migration of many CD plants across the border to neighbouring Russia.

"Many other countries are seeing an increase in either CD-R piracy - small- scale garage or laboratory operations with CD burners stacked in towers - or in manufacturing of discs in CD factories," says the report, adding that in 2002, in 25 countries, pirate music sales outnumbered legitimate recordings.

Don't forget MALAYSIA, plenty of pirated dvd's come from there.

THEY DON'T EVEN MENTION DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES!!!! I go there ALL the time and see HUNDREDS of ILLEGAL CD'S and DVD'S!!!

Piracy is only going to get worse, they will never admit that, but with the INTERNET, things have changed. Plus CD's should be a thing of the past now, if not soon.

Some of the causes of "piracy" in third world countries. The price for a "legitimate" cd or dvd are disporportionate to the income of the area. A good example of this is Malaysia. An average factory worker making Pentium 4 chips is approx $800 Ringett or Approx $210 US Dollars.

A family of five spends approx $65 ringget per month on rice, which is the mainstay of their diet. In 1996 While living there I bought a cd called the 1996 Grammy Nominees. All in all a pretty decent CD. I bought it in a local record and book shop, that had good prices. I paid $54 ringget for the CD.

Given that this piracy is legally a crime anyway, why don't they call it: Music piracy is organized crime?

If this winds up like the drug war, we are ion deep doo doo. I suppose I'll have to start swapping cd's with my friends for free, to stop these criminals from making money.

Good points from 'thumbtack' about the Third World-style economies of the majority of those countries that have been fingered with respect to music piracy. I might add that it has been said that in some of those countries, such pirated goods are made with slave labor, some of which were drawn from the jails where the people in question were sentenced for various crimes.

And on our borders (not only L.A. but in certain sections of New York City where I live), why hasn't been there more of an effort to smash comparable piracy rings? Could it be that it wouldn't be, er, "politically correct"? (I'll leave it at that.)

However, I hasten to add that with the "free trade" racket's influence (the disappearance of millions of manufacturing and hundreds of thousands of service jobs in the U.S. in the last two years alone, the exporting of said jobs to various foreign countries, and the remaining American workers' wages and standards of living being shrunk further and further to the levels of workers in any number of the countries cited) further sinking in, it seems that the problem will get worse before it gets worse (to quote Lily Tomlin).

And remember, organized crime in America became a major force in the first place because of one thing: Prohibition (a.k.a. the 18th Amendment), which upon its enactment in 1920 banned the manufacture, distribution and sale of liquor. From all appearances, history is repeating itself, what with the RIAA-MPAA-IFPI campaign-cum-conspiracy to disenfranchise, subjugate and enslave consumers, and to destroy the technology industry and structural operations therefrom.

Look at the countries they list..all of them where $10US is a lot of money. In Malaysia you can buy "pirate cds and DVD's on the street at the night markets. DVD's $5Ringget, about the same for Music Cd's discounts with volume. This is in everycity or town. From time to time at the urging of the MPAA or IFPI the police announce a sweep, then the next day arrest one or two, confiscate the merchadise, fie the guy 300 to 500 rinnget and le thim go. Within days he is back, or someone has replaced him. Funny thing is you won't find Malaysian musicians very often available as their product is much more reasonable.

If the RIAA spent as much time and money on this kind of "TRUE" piracy, rather than trying to sue us downloaders of music that are only using the downloads for our own personal use, as protected by the Home Audio Act of 1992, then maybe they would be able to increase their sales and income.

Downloading and listening to files for your own personal use IS NOT ILLEGAL. Downloading or copying CD's and selling them and pocketing the bucks IS!!! I would hope that everyone here on boycott-riaa would recognize that difference and support any and all efforts to eliminate these "TRUE" pirates.

Now, if we could just get the RIAA to give the artists "FAIR" contracts, life would be grand.

well if they dropped the price of cd's the problem would go away. people like to buy stuff but if they can get the same thing cheaper they will buy that.

so if the organized crime sell the dupes for $10 sell the originals for $9 and take their market away.

Alas, the RIAA's targeting-cum-persecution of poor schmos who download music for their own use does give the appearance of being a "politically correct" strategy, given what I'd mentioned above.

So, whose house will they go blazing into next! I have seen rabid blood thirsty criminals in action and believe me it's not a pretty site! When will it ever end? The word "HDRA" comes to mind...

Besides I always thought it was the other way around...organized crime funded the recording industry...but could be wrong...

ATTENTION.

The Government has announced that it is a federal crime to rip a tag off of a matress.

thats before it's sold...after its sold at retail you can safely remove the tag....

one word. india.

pirate this! lol.

Isn't the shift towards pirated CD's a good thing?
Or is it just me

Wow I never realized the world was so full of crime. I mean terrorists, murderers, and rapists don't hold a candle to piracy.

Crime is any action which defies a rule that has been written to deter, prohibit, or penalize behavior deemed undesirable by government. To be revolutionary often requires one to be a criminal.

or a singer/musician! KMRDA!

a comment towards INeedALover.. although I share your hatred of the riaa, you are wrong. the 1992 home audio and recording act protects just that.. home audio and recording. it does not protect you downloading music from someone you do not even know and will most likely never know from some other country or some other state. atleast recognize that by current laws downloading of copyrighted music on kazaa is still illegal. i would be the first to say it isn't, if it wasn't, but it is illegal. now, is it legal for the riaa to break and enter your home through hacking into your computer through kazaa? no. will it stand? we will see as the verizon vs riaa court case continues.
Also, one more comment I would like to make is, who does the RIAA think they are? I mean, has anyone thought abou this in a legal aspect? The RIAA is hacking into people's computers, seeing what files they have (shared or unshared) and bringing lawsuits agains them. Now, if it is illegal to download these songs they are freaking out about (when they should be freaking out about professional piracy) why isn't the FBI doing this? What I mean is, whatever happened to calling the police when someone steals from you? Are we all just supposed to take after the RIAA and go vigilante mode? Seriously, think about it logically. If someone steals from you, what do you do? Call the police. So the RIAA thinks we are "stealing" from them, why aren't they calling the police? The FBI should be handling this, not the RIAA. this reminds me of the US stand with Iraq. We basically broke a UN law (going to war without a resolution) to enforce a UN law (iraq having weapons of mass destruction..still to be proven). Now, the RIAA is acting like the America. See, the RIAA is breaking USA laws (breaking & entering) to enforce USA laws (copyright infringement). Interesting what happens when an organization of any type gets too much money and power, isn't it?

What amazes me most is that they didnt even place the US in the topmost of the pirate markets, even though the RIAA focuses all their energy into shutting down any music sharing among their most vital assests...

AMERICAN CONSUMERS!

Bootleg CD's!!!

When I was in the Army, my unit went to Bosnia in 1997. Every Saturday there was sort of a market on the camp where local vendors would sell their wares. The most popular were the ones that sold CD's for about $2 apiece. I never knew the US government or even the US military supported bootlegging.

The reason the RIAA doesn't call the police is probably because they would get laughed at and the RIAA knows this. The FBI doesn't care about filesharers they're on anti-terrorist mode right now. The RIAA knows that too so that's why they are trying to make a law that forces the FBI to get involved in the filesharing cases.

I remember suggesting sarcasticly a while ago that the IFPI or RIAA would attempt to claim piracy is funding organised crime

The FBI is definately in anti-terrorist mode, or rather is doing its best to look like its doing anything at all dispite the near complete absence of terrorists. Outside of america, japan and parts of europe the governments and police couldn't care less about music piracy.

It..is..not...music...piracy!! That is a term probably invented and widely spread by the RIAA, it's posse, and the media!! It WOULD be piracy if the artists were robbed. But the artists are not robbed by the downloading public, but by the RIAA and its labels! Been that way for over a half a century, now. How do you think Jazz would have existed, or Blues, or Classical music, for that matter, if not for the rich "pollinization" of styles, chords, yes, even melody snippets, in jazz, called "quotes."

As for the RIAA and organized crime...takes one to know one!

The RIAA is organized crime, the WORST kind... organized corporate and well funded.

What are we? disorganized, discorporate and day-job funded.

We may be raising a stink here online in these forums and chat rooms...

but what can we REALLY do?

The only things I can think of is to get your friends and family thinking about these issues... and VOTE for the best candidates most likely to win that hold YOUR views on the issue.

And just plain ole get active!

the kettle sure is black huh

Independentm.....WORD!

The RIAA will never be able to stop the file shareing.. there are so many ways around everything.. so i say screw em

After reading this thread, I have noticed that everyone has a vast understanding of the issues. What is next? I would like to step away from the "If they..." comments for a second and go back to "Let's try..."

all the more reason not to buy a cd...