IFPI Press Release, February 10, 1999

Recording Industry Joins Coalition of Copyright Sectors
to Launch EU Anti-Piracy Action Plan

Brussels, March 1, 1999

IFPI, representing the international recording industry, joined a broad-based coalition of copyright industries in Europe today in calling on the EU to draw up pan-European measures to stop the rapid spread of piracy and counterfeiting of audiovisual, music and leisure and business software across the continent.

Leaders of Europe's software, music and audiovisual sectors, which are estimated to lose some 4 billion euros from piracy annually, tabled a 4-point Action Plan aimed at mobilizing the EU for the first time in a unified offensive against piracy. The Plan will be discussed at a hearing of EU, national government and industry representatives in Munich on March 2-3. aimed at expanding the EU's role in fighting piracy.

The copyright industries' Action Plan is drawn from submissions of major European copyright sectors in response to the Commission's recently-published Green Paper on Combating Piracy and Counterfeiting in the Single Market. The trade organizations BSA, IFPI, MPA, IVF and ISFE, representing respectively business software, music, films, videos and leisure software, presented the plan at a press conference in Brussels today. The key points are:

• Coordination at European Level. The Commission should set up a new programme dedicated to combating piracy in Europe. There must be increased cooperation between the law enforcement agencies of EU Member States, and the Commission should work proactively to bring this about.
• The remit of UCLAF, the EU's anti-fraud office, should be extended to deal with piracy inside the EU and co-ordinate cross border investigations, Special EU-level units should co-ordinate exchange of information, and databases; monitor piracy levels and case statistics in and outside the EU; propose reforms or new legislation; and initiate trade actions against third countries.
• Stronger Damages and Penalties. The Commission and Member States must strengthen enforcement in the EU, if necessary by proposing legislation to harmonize criminal penalties at a high level which treats copyright theft on a par with other forms of theft. Enforcement in EU Member States should be more strictly vetted against standards required under the WTO Trips agreement.
• CD Plant Regulation. EU action is needed, by legislative measures if necessary to regulate the manufacture of optical discs through registration and licensing of plants and compulsory use by plants of unique identification codes such as the Source Identification (SID) Code.
• EU Accession and Foreign Relations Priority. The Commission should make enforcement of European intellectual property rights a key criterion in the accession negotiations and in its trade relations with third countries. There should be an annual audit of enforcement among the EU's trading partners. In particular, piracy enforcement should be a higher priority in the six front-line countries for accession, where domestic piracy levels are well above the EU average.

IFPI represents more than 1,300 record producers and distributors in over 70 countries. One of IFPI's principal functions is to carry out and co-ordinate the fight against piracy of recorded music.

Piracy - An Economic Blight on Europe

Background Note on the proposed EU Anti-Piracy Action Plan

Piracy is estimated to cost the software, audiovisual and music sectors more than 4 billion Euros in losses annually in Europe. Piracy damages businesses, causes losses to the European economies and slows down the creation of jobs.

The call for a new pan-European Action Plan reflects the rapidly changing face of optical disc and software piracy. Within the last five years, advances in technologies available to pirates, falling production costs and the ease of transporting huge shipments of discs across borders or on computer networks, have turned piracy into a large-scale international criminal business.

Copyright industries commit huge and growing resources to their anti-piracy operations in Europe and worldwide. They now need support from the European Union. 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.

Adequate remedies, procedures and penalties need to be put in place at a Community level to reduce piracy havens, promote trade in the single market and rid Europe of the economic blight of counterfeiting and piracy. The music, film and software industries need higher and strongly enforced penalties for their development, as well as improved enforcement procedures and faster judicial processes. It is also essential that CD manufacturing is regulated throughout the Single Market in a way that minimizes the risk of pirate manufacturing taking place, while creating no unnecessary obstacles to legitimate commerce.

The initiative also highlights growing piracy problems within the EU, and not merely in third countries. According to estimates in the Green Paper submissions, more than one in three business software programmes in Europe is illegal. Furthermore, illegal manufacturing of audio and other CDs has risen to some 100 million units per year in western Europe, according to independent experts.

The Action Plan also calls for EU measures commensurate with the growing involvement in piracy of organized crime. Criminal networks operating between countries and continents make effective anti-piracy enforcement impossible unless there is a new trans-regional approach. In Europe, investigations by national enforcement agencies and jurisdictions are hampered by the lack of a harmonised approach. Disparities in criminal penalties create havens of poor enforcement from where pirate businesses can operate throughout the Union.

In the EU's relations with third countries, and in particular in the accession negotiations, piracy needs to be made a higher priority. Domestic piracy estimates in the east and central European first wave accession countries are as follows:

Piracy Rate	Music	Business Software	Video
Hungary	27%	58%	40%
Poland	40%	61%	25%
Estonia	85%	92%	85%
Slovenia	10-25%	76%	35%
Czech Republic	10%	66%	35%

For further information contact:
Hanne Thorboll: 00 322 511 9208
Adrian Strain: 44 171 878 7939