Five countries are under not only the scrutiny of the Obama administration for copyright infringement but also the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus. Canada, China, Mexico, Russia and Spain stood out among many troublesome nations, according to today’s announcement by the bicameral, bipartisan caucus.

The announcement was held in the US Capitol and featured all four co-chairs — Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT), and Representatives Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Robert Goodlatte (R-VA). Also speaking were four members of the Copyright Alliance — BSA’s Robert Holleyman (read about BSA’s latest piracy study here), ESA’s Michael Gallagher, MPAA’s Dan Glickman, and RIAA’s Joe Papovich. These organizations also belong to the International Intellectual Property Alliance, and with IIPA do tremendous research on copyright infringement around the world.

“The American assembly line of the 21st Century” produces copyrighted works such as music, motion pictures and television, video games, business software and publishing, said Schiff, adding these works should not be stolen any more than a car off of a GM lot. He noted these works comprise about 6% of the US GDP, and Whitehouse added that means $800 billion in economic contributions, with 5 million workers, a total that when you add supported industries such as transportation and manufacturing reaches $1.3 trillion in economic output, 11% of GDP and 11.3 million workers.

Holding up a pirated DVD case for “Angels and Demons,” Schiff noted that the movie also was almost immediately available after launch through pirate web sites based in China and Spain, two of their five watchlist countries. While the back of the room had displays of pirated DVDs, CDs, video games and more hard copy counterfeits, Goodlatte and others noted that the online piracy threat is the real threat going forward.

They are right, of course; it always amuses me when someone takes issue with duplicating a piece of plastic but thinks nothing of unauthorized copies available for “sharing” online, as if somehow the creative effort and expense that went into production vanishes when it’s a digital copy. The cost of a DVD is not the plastic. Goodlatte noted that, wondering how on earth “Angels and Demons” — with its movie-lot version of St. Peter’s Square made with tens of thousands of workers on an Irvine, California parking lot — could possibly have been funded in an infringement-based world.

Hatch had perhaps the most compelling presentation. A songwriter who has produced gold and platinum albums of inspirational music, he shared his surprise that even his work, which he modestly said had fairly limited distribution, would be pirated, which it has been, a lot. (Goodlatte said it helped to have a victim of copyright as a co-chair of the caucus.) I was impressed at the restraint Hatch showed in not pointing out the moral twists one would have to perform to pirate inspirational music. Remarkable.

Goodlatte ran through the five countries on their watch list, which were colored red on a world map (Schiff was a great sport, playing Vanna White and turning the map to be viewable when Goodlatte began). Canada made the list for the same reason USTR just promoted it to the Special Watch List, USTR’s most troubled category. He called it the “most disappointing” of the five, in that its lack of legal structure for copyright has created a “legal void” that makes it impossible for legitimate business models to develop. A “safe haven for pirates,” he bemoaned the fact that Canada still, after years and years, has yet to implement its WIPO treaty obligations.

China is a well-known infringer, and much was made of China’s Baidu web site, a powerhouse of infringement, which the country refuses to address. Goodlatte said Mexico is “making strides,” but a continued high volume of piracy and a dearth of strong penalties kept it on the watch list. Russia, Goodlatte said, continues to have enforcement and licensing problems, including “rogue collecting societies.” There were posters displayed for two Russian web sites that replaced Allofmp3 that showed the new Eminem CD on their sites a mere hour after commercial launch. Goodlatte said these and other problems meant Russia still wasn’t ready to ascend to the WTO.

Spain is troublesome, Goodlatte said, in part because of a “cultural environment” that embraces infringement. Online infringement is a big issue with Spain, which hosts several popular “file sharing” services.

What does this watch list mean? It means that these congressional leaders will be using their positions to press for dialogue, enforcement and potentially sanctions with these particular countries. There are more than 70 members of Congress in the Caucus, spread across many committees. They work closely with the Administration, including USTR. They travel on congressional delegations. They brief other members of Congress on international infringement issues. They organize hearings. Basically, they help keep a bright light on the baddest of the bad actors abroad, and that is very, very welcome.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 20th, 2009 at 10:15 am by Patrick Ross and is filed under Obama, capitol hill, copyright law, counterfeit, creators, economy, events, international, internet, p2p, piracy, property rights. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.