Pirating of content becomes ever more cut-throat

Date: 22/04/1999

By Simon Coss

EUROPE'S software, music and video industries estimate that they lose €40 billion every year through illegal copying of their products.

Furthermore, all three sectors claim the problem has worsened in recent years with the advent of cheap new 'pirating' tools.

The latest inventions include recordable compact discs, CD players which can also record music and software, and a new computer file format called MP3 which allows high-quality music to be downloaded over the Internet.

The recording and video industries are also still falling victim to more traditional counterfeiters who copy their products on to blank audio and video cassettes.

As if tackling the pirates was not a big enough challenge on its own, the industries complain that a patchwork of differing national rules on copyright within the EU is making their job doubly difficult.

" Pirate businesses are today reaping the benefits of the open borders of the single market. Cooperation among national enforcement authorities has not kept pace and now needs radically improving," said the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which represents some of the world's biggest recording companies, in a recent statement.

Last month, the IFPI joined forces with some of Europe's largest software and video manufacturers to launch a four-point action plan to step up the fight against piracy in the EU.

They want the European Commission to set up a programme dedicated to coordinating efforts by national law enforcement agencies to crack down on copyright infringement, and argue that the penalties currently handed out to people found guilty of piracy are not harsh enough to act as a deterrent.

" Unfortunately, piracy still pays throughout the EU. Damages and penalties for infringement are often lower than the cost of buying or using illegal copies," complained software industry lobby group, the Business Software Alliance (BSA), recently.

The three industries also insist there is a need for urgent action to regulate CD manufacturing plants. At present, there are no clear EU guidelines on how factories producing CDs should be controlled or what sort of labels discs should carry to guarantee their authenticity.

Finally, says the group, the Commission must ensure that copyright issues are thoroughly discussed during the negotiations with the former eastern bloc states bidding for EU membership.

Many of the world's pirate CDs are currently produced in these countries and the industries insist that this must be remedied before any of the central and eastern European states gain access to the Union's single market.

In Estonia, for example, it is estimated that 85% of music CDs, 92% of computer software and 85% of video cassettes are illegal copies. In Poland, the figures are 40%, 61% and 25% respectively; while in the Czech Republic, 10%, 66% and 35% of material is unauthorised.

Article forms part of a survey 'Converging technologies', p13-20.