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RIAA, Other Copyright Groups' Report to Trade Representative Identifies Key Concerns in Global Markets

WASHINGTON - The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), in conjunction with other copyright based organizations that comprise the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), today filed a report with the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) under a section of trade law known as "Special 301." Under Special 301, USTR is required to identify countries that fail to provide adequate and effective protection for U.S. intellectual property and to take appropriate actions, including the possible imposition of trade sanctions and the loss of certain trading privileges.

This year’s report, available on the IIPA website at www.iipa.com, outlines problems in a wide variety of countries but particularly stresses continuing problems in Russia and China, and emerging issues related to digital distribution in global markets. The RIAA issued the following statement from Neil Turkewitz, Executive Vice President, International: “This year's filing identifies the key issues that limit economic opportunities in foreign markets for U.S. creators and creative industries. While this year's report continues to highlight the failure of some governments to take effective action against physical piracy, it increasingly identifies key barriers faced by creative industries in expanding legitimate electronic distribution of copyright materials. In the current environment, it is critical that governments provide clear rights with respect to all forms of digital transmissions, along with effective means of enforcing such rights. Effectively addressing piracy on the Internet and through mobile platforms requires a high level of cooperation between rights holders and service providers, and this year's filing stresses the need for accountability at all levels of content delivery.” “There have been some very important developments in the past year that are helping to drive a new paradigm for network accountability, from agreements on user-generated content in the U.S., to proposed legislation in France mandating the termination of service for repeat infringers, to court ordered network filtering in Belgium. Service providers are increasingly aware of the risks of maintaining a wholly passive role in the face of massive unauthorized transactions taking place over their networks. We hope and expect that 2008 will be a year in which the level of cooperation between rights holders and network service providers will continue to greatly expand to help drive legitimacy, security and trust in the digital space.” “In addition to the issues that RIAA members confront in the digital marketplace, this year's report continues to highlight problems in countries where we face "old-fashioned piracy" like CD-R burning and illegal optical disc production by organized criminal enterprises. Many markets continue to be dominated by piracy, including in particular China where piracy rates remain at more than 90 percent of the market, and Russia where despite some gains in reducing physical piracy, U.S. record labels continue to lose more than $300 million a year in a marketplace where over half of the records sold are pirate copies. The piracy rate in Mexico, notwithstanding the tremendous efforts of the Attorney General, has climbed back to 71 percent, greatly destabilizing Mexico's entire music community.” “This year's filing also highlights key legislative issues. Top among these is Canada's continued failure to amend its copyright law to meet the challenges of new technologies, despite repeated calls from Canada's domestic copyright community, producers, creators and unions, and numerous promises by the Government that they would do so. We also identify important shortcomings in a number of countries, including: inadequate provisions on the circumvention of technological protection measures (TPMs); lack of sufficiently clear rules on secondary liability and contributory infringement; and problems with securing information necessary to take actions against direct infringers. The need to achieve immediate progress in the fight against online piracy is particularly critical in a handful of European nations, including Spain, Germany, Sweden and Italy.” “We hope that governments will take our recommendations on board as they consider how to enhance economic prosperity and cultural production, and how to advance the rule of law in environments, both physical and virtual, that have been relatively – or in some cases, completely – lawless. We simultaneously recommend to the United States Trade Representative, and other U.S. government agencies, that they continue to hold our trading partners accountable on the critical issue of intellectual property. While we believe that it is in the interest of all nations to address copyright piracy in all of its forms for their own domestic purposes, it is sometimes, however disappointingly, necessary for the United States to ensure that there are ramifications for failure to meet international obligations.” 

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The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is the trade organization that supports and promotes the creative and financial vitality of the major music companies. Its members are the music labels that comprise the most vibrant record industry in the world. RIAA® members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 85% of all legitimate recorded music produced and sold in the United States.

In support of this mission, the RIAA works to protect the intellectual property and First Amendment rights of artists and music labels; conduct consumer, industry and technical research; and monitor and review state and federal laws, regulations and policies. The RIAA® also certifies Gold®, Platinum®, Multi- Platinum™ and Diamond sales awards as well as Los Premios De Oro y Platino™, an award celebrating Latin music sales.

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