The International Intellectual Property Alliance Friday submitted its annual report to the U.S. Trade Representative recommending that 10 countries, including Canada, be placed on a watch list for “rampant online and physical piracy of copyrighted works and severe market access barriers.”
The organization, which includes the Independent Film & Television Alliance, the Motion Picture Association of America, the National Music Publishers’ Association and Recording Industry Association of America, also named Argentina, Chile, China, Costa Rica, India, Indonesia, Russia, Thailand and Ukraine in its rogue’s gallery.
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Canada, “standing virtually alone among developed economies,” according to the report, has failed to take a robust stand against online copyright infringement.
“Canada’s enforcement record also falls far short of what should be expected of our neighbor and largest trading partner, with ineffective border controls, insufficient enforcement resources, inadequate enforcement policies, and a seeming inability to impose deterrent penalties on pirates,” report goes on to say. “Canada’s Parliamentary leadership and Government, at the highest levels, have acknowledged many of these deficiencies, but have done little to address them.”
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Google agreed in August 2011 to forfeit $500 million gleaned from online advertising from dubious Canadian pharmaceutical sellers.
The IIPA says “core” copyright-based industries in the U.S. accounted for an estimated $931.8 billion or 6.36 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, and employing nearly 5.1 million workers, or 3.93 percent of all U.S. workers, in 2010.
