Alliance Against Counterfeiting & Piracy comment on
CIPR Report: “Integrating Intellectual Property Rights and Development
Policy”
Background
The Alliance Against Counterfeiting and Piracy (“the Alliance”)
is a cross-industry group representing the interests of intellectual
property rights owners in the UK. Its members are: the Anti-Counterfeiting
Group, Anti-Copying in Design, the British Association of Record Dealers,
the British Brands Group, British Jewellery and Giftware Association,
British Music Rights, the British Phonographic Industry, the British
Video Association, the Business Software Alliance, the Copyright Licensing
Agency, the Entertainment Leisure Software Publishers Association,
the Federation Against Copyright Theft, the Federation Against Software
Theft, the Film Distributors Association, the Institute of Trade Mark
Attorneys, the Newspaper Licensing Agency and the Publishers’
Licensing Society. The objectives of the Alliance are to raise awareness
of the value of intellectual property rights and campaign for legislative
reform in the area of IP rights protection. This is in the context
of the globalisation of IP crime, which is costing British industry
alone £9 billion in lost revenue.
The
Alliance endorses the submissions made to Government by representatives
of rights owners and creative industries, particularly with reference
to counterfeiting and piracy, which are as much a threat to emerging
economies as to developed countries.
Copyright
Protection Issues
In recognising that copyright is “an essential element”
in the business model of rights owners because they give exclusive
rights over reproduction and distribution of their works, it acknowledges
that without this protection the basis for making a work economically
viable is removed. Therefore copyright protection must be as important
to creators throughout the world as patents, in order to allow a fair
return that will enable creation to continue and flourish, whether
in developed or emerging economies. Indeed, it should be particularly
highly valued in developing nations in order to encourage and foster
the cultural individuality of those countries.
The risk
of not adopting the latest intellectual property protection measures
at a time of global piracy of copyright works would seem to the Alliance
to be perverse if national cultural identities are to be conserved
and generate revenue for creative economies. Given that modern telecommunications
systems have spread rapidly throughout the developing world that enable
digital piracy, it seems even more critical and beneficial for the
provisions of recent intellectual property protection legislation
to be implemented on an international scale. It should also be noted
that widespread intellectual property theft funds international organised
crime, such as arms and drugs dealing, fraud, money laundering and
human trafficking, evidence of which is becoming clearer with the
growth of global IP crime.