The United States also encourages trading partners to adopt appropriate measures where needed to address the unauthorized camcording of motion pictures in theaters. The effects of this conduct are not always limited to the market in which this unauthorized recording occurs. For example, as discussed in more detail below, according to the Motion Pictures Distributors Association of India, India has one of the highest rates of piracy of audiovisual works in the world, and in 2012, the motion picture industry experienced losses estimated at $1.1 billion, an increase of 15.79 percent from 2008.
Copies of copyright-protected material, including audiovisual works that have been camcorded, are often distributed without authorization over the Internet. The United States encourages trading partners to enhance enforcement efforts against this form of infringement by: establishing deterrent penalties against camcording; strengthening enforcement against major channels of piracy over the Internet, including with respect to notorious markets; and creating specialized, trained enforcement units and undertaking special initiatives against Internet piracy.
Although copyright piracy over the Internet is rapidly supplanting physical piracy in many markets around the world, the production of, and trade in, pirated optical discs remains a major problems in many regions. In recent years, some trading partners, such as the Czech Republic, Poland, Romania, and Russia, have made progress toward implementing controls on optical media production. Other trading partners still need to adopt and implement legislation or improve existing measures to combat illegal optical disc production and distribution, including China, India, Paraguay, and Vietnam. The United States continues to urge those trading partners who face challenges regarding illegal optical disc production to pass effective legislation to counter this problem, and to enforce existing laws and regulations aggressively.
Finally, the United States encourages trading partners to implement the WIPO Internet Treaties to provide, among other things, protection against the circumvention of technological protection measures and protection for digital rights management information. (See Annex 3).
Caribbean copyright challenges
The United States also would like to highlight serious concerns regarding copyright protection and enforcement in the Caribbean region: music licensing and cable and satellite broadcasting. With respect to music licensing, cable operators and television and radio broadcasters in ten countries in the region reportedly refuse to negotiate with performing rights organizations (PROs) for compensation for public performance of music. In some instances, the local governments themselves appear to control these cable operators and broadcasters, such as the Government of Barbados, which owns and operates MCTV, a local cable provider. At the same time, the PROs assert that they have struggled to advance their legal claims in the local courts, which are backlogged and subject to chronic delays. Even where lawsuits have been decided in favor of the PROs, the PROs report that there are difficulties in obtaining final payment. Rights holders in the music industry have repeatedly identified Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago as the Caribbean region's most problematic markets because of the relative size of their markets. However, a similar pattern of unlicensed cable-casting and broadcasting of copyrighted music reportedly exists in Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
22
