pyrighted material resulted in $8.57 billion in trade losses in 1994. This estimate was produced by the International Intellectual Property Alliance, an organization made up of the world's eight most powerful trade groups representing copyright-based industries. This group further estimated that much of this loss, $866 million, occurred in China. As will be noted later in this paper, China became the focus of special attention by trade experts in the United States government and was induced by threats of trade sanctions to take steps to counter copyright piracy.
The piracy of copyrighted materials takes many forms, depending upon the mediums and products involved. In addition, there has been a confusion of the terms "piracy" and "bootlegging," particularly in the music industry. The following paragraphs will examine some of the more common forms of piracy within the film industry and the music industry. It will also discuss some of the more pressing piracy issues in each field.
Piracy in the film industry has become a hot topic in recent years as the market for videocassettes has expanded. Although videocassettes provide another avenue for film companies to profit from the public's thirst for entertainment, they also provide pirates with an easy method for illicitly copying films. A pirate need only acquire a single videocassette copy of a film in order to reproduce it on a VCR. Moreover, the expansion of laser disc technology in the home entertainment business allows pirates to make very high quality copies, although the technology is more expensive and not readily available in the consumer market. A small investment in digital laser equipment can lead to huge underground profits.
There are six major methods of illicitly copying films. The most traditional is illegal duplication of theatrical film prints. This was the only way of copying films prior to the existence of videotapes. Because it requires sophistic...