Spanish put on record industry’s piracy hit-list

Date: 22/07/04

SPAIN is the only EU member state on a new hit-list of ten 'priority' countries with high levels of music piracy, launched today (22 July) by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

IFPI, the music industry's largest trade body, said Spain joins Brazil, China, Mexico, Paraguay, Pakistan, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand and Ukraine as countries with "consistent failures in anti-piracy enforcement".

The group's chief executive, Jay Berman said there were encouraging signs as Spain "has made good progress in enforcement and legislation".

"But more needs to be done given its stubbornly high levels of CD-R piracy," said Berman, referring to recordable CDs.

IFPI said piracy levels in Spain were 24% in 2003 - the same level as in 2002.

In terms of absolute piracy levels, several member states are worse performers than Spain.

Cyprus, Greece, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Portugal and Poland all had piracy levels of 25-50% - though Poland has improved its performance following the implementation of new laws and better enforcement.

Piracy in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia was greater than half of total sales.

Overall, IFPI said the global pirate market for recorded music totalled 1.7 billion units in 2003 - accounting for an estimated €3.67bn in illegal sales.

Much of the piracy is feeding the profits of organized crime syndicates who are involved in drugs, money-laundering and other criminal activities, said Berman.

Commercial piracy is "contrary to what commentators mistakenly think, just as important a problem as internet piracy", he said.

Global sales of pirate music have hit another record at 1.1 billion discs annually, but thanks to stepped up enforcement efforts the fake CD trade is spreading more slowly than in recent years. Music piracy remains a huge US$4.5 billion illegal business driven by organised crime, government apathy and corruption.

These are the highlights of a new report published 22 July 2004 by the international music industry (IFPI). The report includes a wake-up call to governments, singling out ten priority countries:4 in Asia, 3 in Latin America and 3 in Europe (Spain, Russia and Ukraine), where wholesale anti-piracy offensives are most urgently needed.

http://www.ifpi.org/site-content/library/piracy2004.pdf http://www.ifpi.org/site-content/library/piracy2004.pdf

http://www.ifpi.org/site-content/press/20040722.html http://www.ifpi.org/site-content/press/20040722.html

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