Copyright Industry Turns Sights on Spain and Mexico in New Watchlist

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The ink had barely dried on the new legislation that would mandate the US government to pressure other countries over copyright issues and already a brand new watch list has been created. The interesting thing is that now Spain and Mexico has been upgraded to be in company along with Canada, Russia and China - the Special 301 report only put Spain on the normal watch list.

Here’s the list of countries on the Special 301 reports priority watch list of 2009:

China, Russia, Algeria, Argentina, Canada, Chile, India, Indonesia, Israel, Pakistan, Thailand, Venezuela

Notice two countries that aren’t on there? Spain and Mexico. Both countries were on a regular watch list in the Special 301 (though the report has been discredited by a number of people at this point)

So what happened between May 2nd and now? Let’s look at Mexico according to the industry’s 301 report issues back at the beginning of the month:

Mexico will remain on the Watch List in 2009. While overall IPR enforcement efforts improved in Mexico in 2008, particularly at the federal level, the United States encourages Mexico to increase further its enforcement efforts. The United States urges Mexico to devote greater resources to its enforcement agencies, enhance coordination among enforcement agencies—particularly between the federal, state and municipal authorities—and continue to build a consistent record of aggressive prosecutions and deterrent-level penalties imposed by courts. The United States also urges Mexico to strengthen its IPR regime by enacting legislation to: provide ex officio authority to law enforcement and customs authorities; criminalize camcording in theaters; and implement fully the WIPO Internet Treaties. The United States encourages Mexico to provide effective protection against unfair commercial use of undisclosed test or other data generated to obtain marketing approval for pharmaceutical products, and provide an effective system to prevent the issuance of marketing approvals for unauthorized copies of

patented pharmaceutical products. The United States will continue to work with Mexico to address and resolve these IPR concerns.

So now what’s Mexico like? According to the report by the AFP:

Copyright piracy also remains a severe problem in Mexico with only a handful of state governments interested in fighting illegal trade, the caucus said, and an absence of [penalties] to deter copyright pirates.

From “improved” to “only a handful of state governments interested”, quite a perceived difference in one year - especially when dealing with government legislation.

What about Spain? From the 301 report on May 2nd:

Spain will be maintained on the Watch List in 2009. The United States strongly urges that the Spanish Government take prompt and significant action to address the serious problem of Internet piracy. The Spanish Government has expended minimal effort to change the widespread misperception in Spain that peer-to-peer file sharing is legal. Further, while Spanish law enforcement authorities have taken some positive measures against pirate Internet websites, prosecutors have failed to pursue IPR cases, judges have failed to impose deterrent-level sentences against IPR infringers, and rightsholders do not have access to important legal tools needed to bring meaningful civil infringement suits. The United States urges Spain to make it clear that unauthorized peer-to-peer file sharing is illegal, and to rescind problematic IPR policies such as the May 2006 Circular from the Office of the Prosecutor-General, which appears to legitimize such illicit activity. The United States will continue to work closely with Spain to

address these IPR enforcement issues during the next year.

What is the copyright industry saying now about Spain?

“Internet piracy in Spain has reached an epidemic level, and rights holders lack the necessary tools to enforce their rights on the Internet,” it added.

“Peer-to-peer (P2P) piracy in Spain is widely perceived as an acceptable cultural phenomenon, and the situation is exacerbated by a government policy that has essentially decriminalized illicit P2P file sharing.”

From “rightsholders do not have access to important legal tools needed to bring meaningful civil infringement suits” to “rights holders lack the necessary tools to enforce their rights on the Internet”. Essentially, nothing has changed in their view, but somehow Spain warrants the upgrade anyway - curious.

As for Canada being on that list, Michael Geist already has comments of his own to describe it: “Because one unfounded and unsupportable designation as a pirate nation is never enough, the U.S. Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus has placed Canada on a watch list”

As for how the evidence was gathered to justify what they say? The report also contained this:

The caucus, citing industry estimates, said global piracy costs US firms over 25 billion dollars in lost sales annually.

Let’s just hope these “industry estimates” don’t use statistics gathered in a similar style to a certain Swedish BSA study.

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