WASHINGTON — This morning the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus announced its “2010 International Anti-Piracy Watch List,” the nations that leading members of Congress will focus on in the coming year in terms of improving the protection of U.S. rights owners of intellectual property. As was the case last year, the five nations being watched are Canada, China, Mexico, Russia, and Spain.

This year the Anti-Piracy Caucus — led by Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Representatives Adam Schiff (D-CA) and Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) — has been active. Just last week, they circulated a fantastic Dear Colleague letter throughout Congress emphasizing the importance of enacting the PRO-IP Act of 2008 to ensure improved IP enforcement; highlighting a recent GAO report highlighted the significant threat counterfeiting and piracy poses to copyright industries, our economy, and job growth; and faulting anti-copyright critics for misrepresenting the GAO report for their own ends.

What can the Anti-Piracy Caucus and Congress more generally do to reduce infringement in these watch list nations? Whitehouse, Hatch and Schiff had some ideas but also asked for suggestions from the copyright community. (Goodlatte was testifying elsewhere, but you can get a sense of his take on the subject here, a summary of a panel I moderated recently that featured the Congressman.)

Whitehouse spoke of the likelihood of cybersecurity legislation moving, and said it would be “helpful if we worked to have an anti-piracy provision” in the bill. Hatch noted he has already introduced cybersecurity legislation. Schiff noted a new list the Caucus has unveiled, a list of “Notorious Websites” that blatantly encourage infringement and profit from it. he said Congress, through legislation or pressure, could discourage financial institutions and credit-card providers such as Visa and MasterCard from allowing such sites to process payments, and also target legitimate companies who find themselves advertising on these illegitimate web sites in placed banner ads (often by third parties without the advertiser’s awareness).

The CEOs of major copyright industry trade associations were present, including AAP, ESA, MPAA, NMPA, and RIAA, all of whom endorsed the list and vowed to work with Congress in targeting international infringement. The Caucus also spoke of the importance of Congress working with the Administration, from USTR to the Department of Justice, Commerce, and State, and other agencies. The Members of Congress noted that there is a long bipartisan tradition of this, and Hatch said that if our “charismatic president” were to champion intellectual property with passion he and his colleagues would love to “get behind that.” (It’s not every day in this town that you see a Republican leader saying he’s eager to follow a Democratic President.)

All three Members of Congress spoke about the devastating impact international infringement has on copyright industries, our economy, balance of trade, and job growth and preservation. They also all noted how the growing theft of online piracy is causing unprecedented harm, on a larger scale than physical piracy. (Thus the unveiling of the list of notorious websites, which I will not name here so as to avoid promoting them. I’ll note, however, that the six listed are located in China, Canada, the Ukraine, Sweden, Germany, and Luxembourg.)

But all three Members of Congress also spoke with passion about harms brought to individual artists and creators. Hatch, an ASCAP songwriter, spoke with the most personal connection. (He has a new CD coming out, I believe he said it was called “Roses by the Road,” a departure from him in that it is country music, and features a tribute to his late friend Ted Kennedy titled “My Irish Friend”; he has a Gold and a Platinum album in inspirational music.)

If you’re not part of the songwriting community, Hatch said, you can’t imagine “how many people are harmed” by piracy. “These young kids today, they think if it’s on the Internet it’s free,” but that attitude is going to discourage new and talented artists from entering the business, which Hatch said was a big fear of his.

As for the five countries, they all have their reasons for being on the list: 1) Canada — Continues to avoid implementing into law their international treaty obligations on IP enforcement. 2) China — A world leader in physical piracy, now emerging as a world leader in even more harmful online piracy. 3) Mexico — Making progress, but piracy is growing there, and it’s a leading producer of unauthorized camcorded movies. 4) Russia — Needs to implement the US-Russia IP agreement, with a decline in enforcement becoming clear. 5) Spain — The crisis of P2P piracy there continues as the legal system has created a sense that such infringement is legal (see my recent post on Spain and infringement).

The Anti-Piracy Caucus list usually follows in short order the announcement of the U.S. Trade Representative’s Special 301 Report. Those not familiar with the workings of Washington may wonder why two such lists are produced every spring; after all, every Caucus Watch List country is a high-profile Watch List country in USTR’s list. The significance here is that USTR is housed in the Executive Office of the President, and the Caucus is made up of leading members of Congress. Two branches of government, a shared mission with shared international targets.

As Hatch, Schiff and Whitehouse all noted, success is only truly achieved when Congress and the Administration work together. That hasn’t always been possible during this Congress, but the need for stronger support of US copyright owners’ rights is one area in which they can work together, across branches of government and across party lines.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 at 10:54 am by Patrick Ross and is filed under Obama, capitol hill, creators, economy, events, p2p, piracy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.