Bush hunts down bootleggers

Administration tightens grip on widespread piracy

By WILLIAM TRIPLETT

The Bush administration has gotten tough and is getting tougher on intellectual property thieves, a new federal report claims.

That's good because bootlegging remains bad and is getting worse, according to another report.

The Commerce Dept., in its annual report on intellectual property law enforcement and protection, released Monday, declared "record increases in IP-related investigations and prosecutions" and growing numbers of seizures of counterfeit goods, from CDs and DVDs to prescription drugs and chemicals.

Separately, the Intl. Intellectual Property Alliance submitted to the U.S. Trade Representative on Monday its latest review of IP enforcement and protection in 51 countries, emphasizing "the copyright industries' grave concern with the explosive growth of online and mobile piracy."

IIPA urged that Canada be placed on the USTR's "Priority Watch" list, joining China, Russia and other countries as territories where piracy is at the highest levels in the world.

In countries on that list, "Piracy levels have not come down at all or only marginally, and in some countries, the situation has grown worse," wrote the authors of the review.

According to the Commerce Dept. report, federal authorities upped the number of intellectual property cases they filed in 2007 to 217 -- a 7% increase over the 204 they filed in 2006 and a 33% jump over the 169 cases in 2005.

Also, defendants receiving sentences for intellectual property crimes rose to 287 in 2007, up from 213 in 2006, and Customs officials executed 14,000 seizures of bootlegged goods worth an estimated $200 million in 2007.

Report touted improved or increased international efforts to nab pirates, particularly organized crime groups that are trafficking heavily in counterfeit product.

"The trend lines are all positive in terms of law enforcement actions," said Chris Israel, head of the Commerce Dept.'s IP enforcement office.

But asked if the successes claimed in the report could translate into any quantifiable decrease in the size or scope of piracy, Israel responded: "It's tough to track numbers globally. What we can demonstrate in quantifiable terms is our domestic efforts, which have seen some successes. The challenge remains very large and comprehensive, but we are seeing progress in terms of our actions and our forming relationships with other countries."

The IIPA said it "conservatively" estimated last year's global losses due to piracy as at least $30 billion, possibly $35 billion. It said that reliable numbers for losses specifically involving Internet piracy were not yet available but described them as "significant."

The IIPA review singled out Canada for having taken "no meaningful steps toward modernizing its copyright law to meet the global minimum standards" of intellectual property treaties the government signed more than 10 years ago.

In addition to Canada, the review recommended putting Saudi Arabia and Peru on the Priority Watch list.

IIPA exec director Eric H. Smith hammered the necessity of going after pirates in cyberspace cooperatively. "It is imperative that we secure greater interindustry cooperation in the fight against online and mobile piracy to curb the theft of digital content," he said in a statement. "The goal must also be to encourage responsible conduct on the part of all parties involved in the transmission of copyright materials."