In February, the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), a coalition of US copyright protection organizations, asked the Office of the US Foreign Trade Representative to place India and 11 other nations under watch for IP violations.
The IIPA is made up of seven trade groups representing industries in which copyright protection is a key issue: the Association of American Publishers, the Business Software Alliance, the Entertainment Software Association, the Independent Film & Television Alliance, the Motion Picture Association of America, the National Music Publishers’ Association and the Recording Industry Association of America.
In its submission, titled “2009 special 301 report on copyright protection and enforcement”, the IIAP asked the Office of the US Foreign Trade Representative to include India on its IP priority watch list, along with Argentina, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Egypt, Indonesia, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Russia and Thailand.
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In the cover letter accompanying the report, Eric Smith, co-founder of the IIAP, wrote: “The primary problem is that many of our trading partners have not yet, or will not, establish and employ effective and deterrent enforcement mechanisms to combat piracy.
“The key contributing factors to massive copyright piracy losses and high piracy levels include: (1) the failure to provide expeditious, non-burdensome, and non-costly enforcement procedures, (2) the failure to provide deterrent remedies and sanctions, whether civil, administrative, or criminal; (3) the failure to provide modern legal structures to provide tools to law enforcement and the judiciary to effectively enforce their laws in order to deter piracy; and, in some cases, (4) the denial of effective market access for copyright products on an open and non-discriminatory basis.”
The IIAP estimates that total US trade losses in India due to copyright piracy in 2008 were worth around US$1 billion, following estimated losses of US$1.1 billion in 2007.
“Piracy in India is a significant challenge to the film industry,” Rajiv Dalal, managing director of the Motion Picture Distributors Association (India), told India Business Law Journal.
A December study by KPMG estimated that 60% of movies sold in India were pirated.
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