Bush targets South Korea, EU, and others in piracy cracdown

By MARTIN CRUTSINGER Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is accusing South Korea of failing to halt the piracy of American movies and music that it said was costing U.S. companies millions of dollars in lost revenue.

The administration announced Thursday that South Korea was being added to a priority list of countries that are subject to special monitoring and consultations aimed at making sure the foreign government acts to address the copyright piracy issues that have been uncovered.

If South Korea fails to comply, the United States could bring a case before the World Trade Organization. If the WTO ruled in America’s favour, the Bush administration would have the power to impose economic sanctions on South Korea equal to the lost revenue from the copyright piracy.

“The administration is committed to protecting American creativity and intellectual property, one of the most dynamic sectors of our economy,” U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said.

In targeting South Korea, the administration said a special review completed late last month found that the growth of online music piracy in the country was causing serious economic damage to both U.S. and other foreign music companies — as well as South Korean recording companies.

The administration said the review also found continued piracy of U.S. motion pictures in South Korea that U.S. trade officials estimated were costing millions of dollars in lost revenue for U.S. and South Korean companies who held the copyrights to the movies.

“The pirating of U.S. intellectual property robs Americans and hurts those countries whose economies rely on innovation, technology and investment,” Zoelleck said in a release.

“Open markets and the protection of intellectual property are critical to the continued growth of our economy and we’ll vigorously press our trading partners to follow the rules.”

The administration said it had been encouraged by some steps taken by South Korea, including the granting of police authority to inspections teams responsible for investigating the piracy of computer software.

But the U.S. complaint said the South Korean government failed to move on two priority issues: submitting legislation to improve the protection of sound recordings and resolving film piracy issues related to the Korea Media Rating Board.

South Korea becomes the 12th country or trading group already on the U.S. priority watch list because of U.S. allegations that the countries are not doing enough to halt the piracy of intellectual property.

The 11 other countries on the list are Argentina, the Bahamas, Brazil, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, the Philippines, Poland, Russia and Taiwan.

Related Posts

1. P2P Music Swapping Put on Hiatus in South Korea
2. Russian bittorrent website received the grant from South Korea
3. RIAA Submits International Piracy Report To U.S. Government
4. P2P Litigation in South Korea
5. Bush creates high-level anti-piracy post