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US content industries update copyright watch lists

By | Published on Tuesday 14 February 2012

Copyright

The International Intellectual Property Alliance, which, despite its name, is a coalition of US-based content industry trade bodies, has issued an updated list of the countries it reckons are failing to crack down on copyright infringement.

The list has been handed to the office of the US Trade Representative, who will be encouraged to put pressure on these countries to do more to crack down on piracy, both physical and online.

As is frequently the case, one amusing inclusion on the IIPA’s ‘most wanted’ list is America’s neighbour Canada. As much previously reported, Canadian copyright law has struggled to cope with the growth of online copyright infringement, much to the annoyance of both domestic content companies and those abroad, especially in the US. Efforts are ongoing to revamp Canadian copyright law, though progress remains slow going.

It’s interesting China also remains of the IIPA’s highest priority list, despite some being positive about moves made by the Chinese government in this domain, which have arguably led to some tangible results, most notably search engine Baidu’s deals with rights owners regarding its music services. Though everyone knows China has quite some way to go in terms of copyright enforcement, which is presumably why the IIPA wants US trade reps to continue to put pressure on political leaders there.

Anyway, here’s the IIPA’s lists:

Priority Watch List (aka please kick these guys into action): Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Russian Federation, Thailand, Ukraine.

Watch List (aka we’re not especially impressed with these guys either): Belarus, Brazil, Brunei, Colombia, Egypt, Greece, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Romania, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Paraguay.

Countries Deserving Special Mention (aka we have some specific problems with these guys): Albania, Bulgaria, Hong Kong, Hungary, Latvia, Moldova, Singapore, Taiwan.



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