Riaa Cites Bulgaria For Piracy Problems

The Recording Industry Assn. of America (RIAA) has blown the whistle on yet another country with an epidemic piracy problem.
That country, Bulgaria, could face trade retaliation from the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) if it does not clamp down on alleged mob-driven, illegal CD manufacturing plants and upgrade its nearly nonexistent copyright-protection and enforcement laws.
The RIAA, as a member of the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), filed a report with the USTR Feb. 23 recommending that Bulgaria be moved from the administration's second-tier Priority Watch List to the worst-offending Priority Foreign Country list for its blatant CD piracy.
RIAA says losses to the U.S. industry there amounted to $125 million in 1997. The bulk of the problem in Bulgaria stems from five illegal CD plants that produce and export product and are being ignored by government officials.
Those plants have the capacity to generate more than 60 million units a year, although Bulgaria's domestic market hovers at about 1 million units.
Both the IIPA and the RIAA note that in Bulgaria and other countries, organized crime is driving the rise in optical-based piracy. Hilary Rosen, president/CEO of the RIAA, explains that 'product may be assembled in three different countries for global distribution.'
Steve Metalitz, VP/general counsel at IIPA, says, 'There's a lot of places where this is happening. It takes millions of dollars and a certain level of sophistication to set up a CD plant. This is not an amateur operation. So in Hong Kong, for example, we are asking the government to include a copyright-infringement statute in their racketeering laws.'
The trade group also commended the USTR on naming Paraguay to its Priority Foreign Country list last month. According to IIPA statistics, Paraguay costs the U.S. record industry $130 million in losses as both an exporter and trans-shipper.
CD piracy losses in China, Brazil, and the Russian Federation amount to losses of more than $100 million each annually. They are already designated as problem countries and are being monitored by the USTR to track enforcement efforts.
Under U.S. trade law's annual Special 301 provision, the USTR can deal with countries that do not respond to calls for greater copyright enforcement by initiating a six-month negotiation timetable and eventually retaliatory trade policy action, such as denying market access to the U.S. for exports.
The IIPA recommended 19 countries to the Priority Watch List, including Australia, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Mexico, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam. It called on the USTR to place 25 countries on the lowest-priority Watch List, including two new countries, Spain and Taiwan.
U.S. copyright industries lost some $10.8 billion to copyright piracy in 1997.

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