U.S. Puts 12 Nations On Watch For Piracy

ColinPL writes with a link to an AP article about a public scolding the US has given China, Russia, and several other nations. Failure to 'sufficiently protect' American copyrights is the cause of the Bush administration's ire, and has resulted in these countries showing up on a 'priority watch list' that could eventually lead to economic sanctions. "In addition to Russia and China, the 10 countries placed on the priority watch list were Argentina, Chile, Egypt, India, Israel, Lebanon, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela. In elevating Thailand to the priority watch list, the administration said it was concerned by a range of issues including a 'deteriorating protection for patents and copyrights.' Thailand is currently in a dispute with international drug companies including Abbott Laboratories of the United States over the cost of drugs to fight AIDS and other diseases. The Thai government in January issued compulsory licenses allowing the use of much cheaper generic versions of two leading drugs in Thailand."

Comments

The third world

[n3tcat]

I remember on my camp in Kuwait, the TCNs (third-world country nationals) would come on to clean, and would also stop by our living quarters with a truck load of burned dvds and vcds for a few bucks a pop. And this was very often. I know it was even worse up in Iraq, with people ripping and burning movies to sell on the markets all the time.

So these other countries must be doing this in huge quantities to be on this list. It's rather impressive really.

Re:The third world

[Heir Of The Mess]

I think you will find that there are factories in China making pirate DVDs that get shipped in bulk to just about every other country in the world. There are factories in Hong Kong that start printing the retail DVDs to stock up for the retail release, of course this printing is done while the movie is still in theatres, but often theses Hong Kong factories are also the source of the early DVD rips where rogue employees get a copy out of the factory somehow.

Counterfeiting is also big in China. There they even managed to set up a whole fake NEC organisation that was buying from the same suppliers that the real NEC did, see http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/04/27/business/ne c.php. They even print foreign food labels and put in on local produce. It's amazing stuff. There was even a case where they set up a car factory right next to a GM factory and were churning out the same car. Check this out http://www.automotoportal.com/article/chinese-rip- offs-of-western-automakers Makes a truck of burnt DVDs look like childs play.

Blatant Piracy should be stopped

[prakslash]

I, for one, welcome this.

These countries can do everything cheaper as seen with off-shored outsourcing and all.
The only edge the US has is innovation.

If these countries can just copy everything and do it dirt cheap, it will harm entities in the US who spend money on innovation - be it pharmaceuticals, music or software.

I think a bit of personal not-for-profit p2p downloading and an exception for life-saving drugs in OK. But, the balatant disregard for copyrights and patents with businesses in these countries openly copying and selling pharmaceuticals, software and music should be stopped.

Problems for the drug companies...

[khyron664]

I have to say I agree with this action to some degree. Namely as it relates to drug companies though. I've been involved people that work in the pharmaceutical business, and getting a drub approved by the FDA is NOT easy. Many never make it to market, and almost all of them require a lot of money to develop in R&D. While making a product is no guarantee of making money, they should be allowed some protection for doing the work. Without a patent on the drug, the minute it hits the market it will be reverse engineered by a different drug company and sold cheaper. Some say that is the way it should be, but I honestly don't agree. The company creating the drug is spending a lot of time and money in R&D, without which we wouldn't get the current drugs we have and rely on. Why should another company get to easily piggy back on their efforts? Where is the motivation to find new cures in that environment?

As to the cost of the drugs, the companies are trying to make money. They're not non-profit organizations. Should they be? That's a different question all together which I won't address here. The rest of the world complains about the price of drugs and refuses to pay the prices the drug companies want to charge, instead deciding not to honor the patents on the drugs if the price doesn't come down. The result? The US has much higher drug prices than most of the rest of the world because we end up paying for the companies R&D costs since the rest of the world won't. Sorry, I can't feel bad about sanctions against countries that refuse to carry the burden of R&D costs and leave the US to carry it all. Do I feel the costs be lower? Definitely. However, I also don't know the R&D cost for a particular drug so whose to say the costs aren't in line with a reasonable time line to recoup R&D costs? I can't say I think having for profit companies develop the drugs helps things.

Given this situation, what's the way to handle it OTHER than patents? How can a company recoup the R&D costs (plus a profit) for a drug at a price level that is fair to all countries? Why shouldn't the countries in the rest of the world be forced to honor the drug companies' patents? It's not like it's a field where the companies can simply say "Pay up or you don't get the cure".

I don't really care much about the copyright portion of this story, but I get irked when I see people ranting against drug companies. They're definitely not perfect, but they are getting screwed by the rest of the world as bad as they screw the people in the US imo.

Khyron