Worldwide Update
Australia
Toyota Kicks Counterfeit Car Parts to the Curb
Toyota Australia has recently warned that repair workshops selling and fitting counterfeit Toyota vehicle parts are putting their businesses at risk. There has been an increase in counterfeit Toyota parts being imported into Australia illegally, which can be sold locally for a fraction of Toyota’s retail price. “The parts are not made to the standards of quality, reliability and durability Toyota Genuine Parts are renowned for,” says Matthew Callachor, divisional manager for Toyota customer service.
“The safety of Toyota drivers and their passengers is of paramount importance to Toyota Australia, and it is not acceptable that inferior parts are being fitted to their vehicles. Additionally, these parts being passed off as our product compromise our good reputation and the reputation of workshops repairing Toyota vehicles across Australia,” he said.
Counterfeit auto parts are usually manufactured in unknown locations with inferior materials and no guarantee on safety, quality or usage, which is why they are offered so cheaply. Toyota also warned the public that the safest way to protect business from the risks involved with counterfeit parts is to purchase Toyota Genuine Parts directly from a Toyota dealer.
CarAdvice.com.au, October 1, 2008
Toyota Gets Tough on Counterfeit Parts
China
Microsoft Slashes Prices to Cut Down Piracy
Microsoft has cut prices by 70% on its software products in China to counter rampant piracy. It is the first special offer since Microsoft entered the Chinese market in 1992, the company said.
Microsoft said it had slashed the price for Office 2007 Home and Student Edition to 199 yuan ($29) from 699 yuan ($102). The price cut is designed to make Microsoft’s products in China more affordable and more promotions are likely in the future, according to Jim Lin, the company’s public relations manager in Beijing.
Violation of intellectual property rights has been an ongoing issue in China’s relationships with its trading partners, including the United States. U.S. movie, music, software and book industry groups alone estimate they lost $3.5 billion in China due to piracy in 2007, three times more than in 2001. Microsoft, the world’s largest software firm, is among the hardest-hit victims. Pirated versions of Microsoft’s Office software can sell in China for less than 10 yuan ($1.50).
In August 2008, Chinese police detained the operator of a website, ‘Tomato Garden’, from which millions of pirated versions of Microsoft software had been downloaded.
iT News, September 24, 2008 (Reuters)
Microsoft cuts prices in China to fight piracy
Italy
Colombo-BT Closed for Business
Colombo-BT.org, the largest BitTorrent tracker site in Italy, has been closed following police action. BitTorrent trackers help users find and exchange the computer files they want on certain peer-to-peer networks, enabling them to distribute uploaded copyright infringing material.
Colombo-BT.org made available more than 390,000 music files and 500,000 movie files, including numerous pre-release titles. The illegal service had more than 400,000 registered users and 800,000 unique user accesses each month. On July 28, 2008, the Guardia di Finanza undertook the action in cooperation with FPM, the Italian anti-music piracy group.
The site was run by three Italian men who have been charged by the police with infringing copyright law and face potential prison terms of up to three years and heavy financial penalties through administrative sanctions. The operators were making money by accepting online donations from users. The three men now face potential prison sentences and fines as a result of their activities.
According to Enzo Mazza, president of FPM, “This police action sends a strong message that Italy will not tolerate serious online music piracy so criminals looking for get rich quick schemes should consider other options.”
IFPI.org, July 29, 2008
Read the Press Release here.
Korea
Warner Fights Piracy On Demand
In an effort to limit piracy in South Korea, Warner Bros. has announced that they will be releasing their movies ‘on-demand’ at least two weeks before their official DVD release dates
According to Thomas Gewecke, president of Warner Bros. Digital Distribution, the experimental move is a chance to see if the action will impact Internet piracy in a country where almost everyone has broadband Internet. “Korea is the ideal market for us to expand our digital distribution strategy,” Gewecke said. “There is already a broad base of consumers who are immersed in technology and very comfortable getting movies through video-on-demand or similar services.”
Managing director of Warner Home Video Korea, Harrison Lee, also added that more than 47% of people surveyed in Korea said they had downloaded movies from the Internet at least once.
Afterdawn.com, October 5, 2008 (Andre Yoskowitz)
Warner tries to curb Korean piracy
Mexico
Pirates Burned in Mexico City Raids
On August 29, 2008, Mexican law enforcement authorities raided a total of 70 warehouses and 15 laboratories around the market of Tepito in Mexico City. The area had become a well-known distribution point for pirated music and film in Mexico. The raids followed several weeks of investigation into the activities of pirate music distributors and are part of the stepped-up intellectual property enforcement policy recently advanced by the Calderon Administration.
The operation took place with the assistance of local industry anti-piracy group APCM, and led to the seizure of approximately 410,000 recorded CD-Rs/DVDs, 3 million covers and 850 CDR/DVD burners, and two individuals were arrested. A force of 375 police officers and 10 prosecutors from the Attorney General’s office (PGR) carried out the raids.
According to the authorities, the organization targeted in the raids supplied pirate music and film product throughout the country.
IFPI.org, September 8, 2008
Read the Press Release here.
Taiwan
EzPeer Pirates Face Hard Time For Infringement
On October 6, 2008, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office announced the indictment of the local websites EzPeer and EzPeer+ for copyright infringement. Digital Global Ltd., the company operating the sites, as well as the company’s Chairman and four staff, were also indicted. The operators of EzPeer and EzPeer+ face up to three years in prison for facilitating copyright infringement.
EzPeer was a popular website in Taiwan which allowed its users to exchange and download unauthorized music and movie files. Following the settlement of an earlier copyright infringement complaint in 2006, EzPeer was understood to have closed and been replaced by a new site, EzPeer+. However, the EzPeer site in fact remained active and continued to facilitate copyright infringement. On November 14, 2006, the Criminal Intelligence Bureau raided EzPeer, which was then housed in the same offices of EzPeer+. The raid found that four servers located in EzPeer+’s office also hosted the operations of EzPeer. In addition, some EzPeer+ employees were found to be working for EzPeer. After lengthy investigations, on October 6, 2008, the Taipei District Prosecutor indicted both EzPeer and EzPeer+.
“The Taiwan authorities’ persistence in obtaining these indictments is to be commended and sends a strong signal that those seeking to profit by stealing others’ creative works cannot escape the law in Taiwan,” said Mike Ellis, President and Managing Director, Asia-Pacific for the Motion Picture Association (MPA). “As Internet piracy continues to grow, we hope to see such resolve as shown in Taiwan from the authorities in the rest of the region, which will go a long way in tackling this scourge.”
In Taiwan, Internet piracy is of increasing concern. In 2007, the Taiwan Foundation Against Copyright Theft (TFACT) representing the MPA coordinated with local enforcement authorities to take action in respect of more than 300 online piracy cases. This number has already been exceeded in 2008. As at end-September 2008, there have been 320.
MPAA.org, October 8, 2008
Read the Press Release here.
See GrayZone Digest Fourth Quarter 2006
United Kingdom
Companies Pay the Price for Software Piracy
A travel company based in the north of England has been fined a six-figure sum for using unlicensed versions of Microsoft software, an amount negotiated by the Business Software Alliance (BSA). The BSA has taken further enforcement action against three other companies:
debt recovery firm Philips Collection Services, packaging company Procurasell and online marketing group Webevents, all due to the use of unlicensed software.
The fined travel company was using unlicensed editions of SQL Server and the corresponding SQL CALs, Visio, Project, Office and Windows Server. As well as paying the penalty charge, the company will have to purchase legal versions of the software, resulting in an additional cost of more than
£100,000 (more than $170,000 USD.)
Both Procurasell and Webevents have also been fined tens of thousands of dollars for using unlicensed versions of Adobe and Microsoft software, however the BSA did not disclose the exact amount in each case. The filing against Philips Collection Services is still underway. The firm used
unlicensed copies of Microsoft and Adobe software on around 100 PCs. The BSA sent a software audit request to the company in June 2007 but it failed to respond and this led to the BSA pursuing the case in court.
PC Magazine, October 2, 2008 (Rosalie Marshall)
BSA cracks down on software piracy