12 Nations Put on Copyright Piracy List

A steam roller destroys DVDs at a publicity event in Xiangfan, in central China's Hubei province on World Intellectual Property Day Thursday April 26, 2007. Some 120,000 copies of pirated DVD's were destroyed in the activity, which was designed to show China's efforts to stamp out piracy. The flood of illegally copied music, movies and other goods from China is growing despite repeated crackdowns, two U.S. business groups said Thursday, appealing to Beijing to do more to stamp out the illicit industry. Rampant Chinese counterfeiting has worsened tensions with Washington, which filed a World Trade Organization complaint this month accusing Beijing of violating trade commitments by failing to stamp out the illicit industry. (AP Photo) (Str - AP)

WASHINGTON -- China, Russia and 10 other nations were targeted by the Bush administration for failing to sufficiently protect American producers of music, movies and other copyrighted material from widespread piracy.

The Bush administration on Monday placed the 12 countries on a "priority watch list" which will subject them to extra scrutiny and could eventually lead to economic sanctions if the administration decides to bring trade cases before the World Trade Organization.

Another 31 countries were placed on lower level monitoring lists, indicating the concerns about copyright violations in those nations did not warrant the highest level of scrutiny.

The designations occurred in a report that the administration is required to provide Congress each year highlighting problems American companies are facing around the world with copyright piracy, which they contend is costing them billions of dollars in lost sales annually.

"We must defend ideas, inventions and creativity from rip-off artists and thieves," U.S. Trade Representative Susan C. Schwab said in a statement accompanying this year's report.

The administration earlier this month announced that it was filing two new trade cases against China before the World Trade Organization. One of those cases charged that China was lax in enforcing its laws on protecting American copyrights and patents.

The annual report, known as a "Special 301 Report," for the section of U.S. trade law that it covers, said that China has a special stake in upgrading its protection of intellectual property rights, given that its companies will be threatened by rampant copyright piracy as they increase their own innovation.

For Russia, the report said the United States will be closely watching to see how Russia fulfills the commitments it made to upgrading copyright protection as part of a U.S.-Russia accord reached last year which was seen as a key milestone in Russia's efforts to join the World Trade Organization.

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.

Representatives of U.S. companies applauded the new administration report but Oxfam America denounced the administration for what the international development agency said was a misstatement of the rights of U.S. companies under international trade rules.