For Immediate Release
May 17, 2007
Contact: Deidre Huntington
Ph: (202) 220-4550
BOOK PUBLISHERS COMMEND CONGRESSIONAL ANTI-PIRACY CAUCUS REPORT ON 2007 PRIORITY WATCH LIST
Washington, DC May 17, 2007: The Association of American Publishers (AAP) joined other copyright industry groups and the Congressional International Anti-Piracy Caucus in a press conference today to unveil the top five countries on the Caucus’ 2007 Priority Watch List. The Caucus, chaired by Senators Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) and Gordon H. Smith (R-OR) and Representatives Adam B. Schiff (D- CA) and Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) highlighted piracy problems in China and Russia for 2007. The Caucus applauded the actions brought against China in the World Trade Organization (WTO) recognizing that the problem requires further action to significantly curb piracy. The Caucus also highlighted recurring difficulties in Mexico, Canada and Malaysia.
AAP President & CEO Pat Schroeder, joined by Dan Glickman (Motion Picture Association of America); Mitch Bainwol (Recording Industry Association of America); Stevan Mitchell (Entertainment Software Association) and Robert Holleyman (Business Software Alliance), reported that copyright industries estimate they have lost well over $2.3 billion in revenues to piracy in China in 2006, with book publishers reporting losses of $52 million resulting from piracy of books and journals [more than double the estimated total value of legitimate book exports to China last year], and noting that this figure does not include digital piracy on the Internet. Russia’s piracy problem remains among the worst in the world, with piracy devastating legitimate markets for all copyrighted materials. The copyright industries—including book and journal publishing as well as software, motion picture, and sound recording producers and musical composers-- have reported losses of well over $1 billion in 2006.
Global piracy has cost AAP member companies almost $600 million in 2006 as a result of commercial scale photocopying, illegal print runs, unauthorized translations and CD-R burning of text. Book and journal publishers doing business in the Chinese and Russian markets face massive Internet piracy that affects commercial bestsellers, academic books and journals. In addition, piracy of trade books, in English or translation, undercuts the ability of legitimate companies to do business in both countries. In Malaysia and Mexico massive photocopying of academic texts decimates the educational market, while Canada has failed to implement important measures to protect content online. AAP welcomes the Caucus’ attention to these important issues and looks forward to working with the United States government and foreign governments in their commitment to preserving intellectual property protection.
The Association of American Publishers is the national trade association of the U.S. book publishing industry. AAP’s more than 300 members include most of the major commercial publishers in the United States, as well as smaller and non-profit publishers, university presses and scholarly societies—small and large. AAP members publish hardcover and paperback books in every field, educational materials for the elementary, secondary, postsecondary, and professional markets, scholarly journals, computer software, and electronic products and services. The protection of intellectual property rights in all media, the defense of the freedom to read and the freedom to publish at home and abroad, and the promotion of reading and literacy are among the Association’s highest priorities.
###