Fwd: US IP worth $300 mn stolen in India: Report

[FREDERICK NORONHA <fred@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Another reason to shift to Linux? Original posting from my friend Dr Arun 
Mehta (Delhi) on the GII mailing list. -FN

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------
Subject: US IP worth $300 mn stolen in India: Report
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2001 08:42:17 +0530
From: Arun Mehta <indata@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: India  Gii <india-gii@xxxxxxxx>


http://www.timesofindia.com/today/22busi2.htm
...
A report of International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), released
here Tuesday, quotes the loss in U.S. revenue at $316.9 million in 2000.
The breakup of the loss is: motion pictures $47 million, sound
recordings/musical composition $6 million, business software applications
$195.2 million, entertainment software $32.7 million and books $36 million.
The US Trade Representative (USTR) maintains the list under trade law
Special 301. Along with India, IIPA recommended adding Brazil, Costa Rica,
Guatemala, Indonesia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lithuania, Peru, the Philippines,
Saudi Arabia, Taiwan and Uruguay to the list. The USTR is scheduled to
decide in April the action, if any, it intends to take against the
countries it finds violating the IP rights.
IIPA says India has a large, significant indigenous copyright industry,
across all of the artistic, literary and computer fields. These industries
are growing very rapidly despite high levels of piracy. The software
industry is expected to grow to a $90 billion industry by 2008 (with
predicted exports of $50 billion). That industry was also predicted to
contribute 7.5 percent to gross domestic product (GDP) growth by this
period; software exports would account for 30 per cent of all Indian
exports by 2008.
India's music and motion picture industry is predicted to become a $15
billion industry by 2005. With these significant prospects for strong
economic growth in the copyright field, IIPA feels, "it is unfortunate that
piracy levels continue to hinder that growth and that the primary obstacles
to reducing these rates are police corruption, lack of resources and an
overcrowded and ineffective court system that prevents conclusion of even
the simplest criminal case."
It says the police often protects larger pirates and it has become
commonplace for only smaller pirates to be raided. Even if these problems
were to be solved, the Indian court system continues to present an issue
that seems almost incapable of a solution.
To IIPA's knowledge there have only been four criminal convictions for
video piracy in India since the effective date of the new copyright law in
1995, and a few convictions for music piracy including two in 2000 with
prison sentences of three and two years for music piracy.
It says most music piracy cases have not reached the trial stage and those
that have involved only small fines. There have been no convictions for
software piracy.
...
__________
For so many years, Nasscom has been making a big noise about what it is
doing against software piracy, but not a single conviction?? One must
admit, though, that it is harder to buy pirate software in Delhi than in
Bangkok or Kuala Lumpur.
Arun

Arun Mehta, B-69, Lajpat Nagar-I, New Delhi -- 110024, India. Phone
+91-11-6841172, 6849103.  http://members.tripod.com/india_gii To join
india-gii, a list which discusses India's bumpy progress on the global
infohighway, mail india-gii-subscribe@xxxxxxxx

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