Clarification of Answer by
kutsavi-ga
on
16 Dec 2002 21:03 PST
Hi Peterch,
Google tells us researchers not to post entire web pages as responses,
but in this case I thought it was important to.
The FBI really doesn't like copyright infringement, which is what
renting out your purchased DVD's amounts to. Here is what they have
to say about copyright infringement and Intellectual Property:
http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cid/fc/fifu/about/about_ipc.htm
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CRIMES
MISSION As the world moves from the industrial age to the information
age, the United States economy is increasingly dependent on the
production and distribution of creative, technical, and intellectual
products. These valuable products, collectively known as "Intellectual
Property" (IP), are the primary fuel of the U.S. economic engine.
Currently, the U.S. leads the world in the creation and export of IP
and IP-related products. The International Anti-Counterfeiting
Coalition recently reported that the combined U.S. copyright
industries and derivative businesses account for more than $433
billion, or 5.68%, of the U.S. Gross National Product, which is more
than any other single manufacturing sector. The Bureau of Labor
Statistics reports that between 1977 and 1996 the growth in the IP
segment of the economy was nearly twice that of the U.S. economy as a
whole. It is also estimated that the software industry alone will
employ more than one million people in the U.S. by the year 2005.
Like any other valuable product, IP is eagerly sought by criminals. IP
theft has grown dramatically in recent years resulting in enormous
economic losses. These losses not only undermine America's leadership
position in IP, but they also pose a significant threat to the health
and viability of the U.S. economy. The International
Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition estimated that U.S. companies lost $200
billion in 1997 due to worldwide copyright, trademark, and trade
secret infringement. The Business Software Alliance estimates that 25%
of all business software programs used by U.S. companies is pirated;
in some countries that figure soars to 99%. The Motion Picture Export
Association of America claims that counterfeited videotapes cost their
industry approximately $750 million a year, while the International
Federation for the Phonographic Industry estimates that piracy of
compact discs (CD) costs their industry hundreds of millions of
dollars a year. The American Society of Industrial Security has
estimated the losses attributable to the theft of trade secrets to be
at least $2 billion a month. On the law enforcement front, the United
States Customs Service reported that it seized more than $70 million
in IP- infringing merchandise intended for sale in America in 1998.
In addition to the economic impact of IP crime, there are broader
concerns. IP crime cheats the U.S. of tax revenues, adds to the
national trade deficit, subjects consumers to health and safety risks,
and leaves consumers without any legal recourse when they are
financially or physically injured by counterfeit products. Counterfeit
products, such as airplane parts, pharmaceuticals, baby formulas and
children's toys, often are manufactured using inferior materials and
rarely undergo any type of quality control. For example, the U.S.
automobile industry, which has estimated sales of counterfeit and
imitation replacement parts to be in excess of $1 billion a year, has
reported a number of incidences of brake failure caused by brake pads
manufactured from wood chips.
In general terms, IP crime can be broken down into three categories:
copyright violations, trademark infringement violations, and theft of
trade secrets. Copyright violations typically involve the piracy and
counterfeiting of computer software, recorded music, and movie videos.
Trademark infringement violations encompass the counterfeiting of
brand name products, such as designer dungarees, well known names in
women's clothing, and expensive wristwatches, to name just a few of
the innumerable items that counterfeiters illegally manufacture and
sell everyday. Theft of trade secret violations involve the theft of
valuable proprietary and sensitive information and includes all types
of industries, from manufacturing to financial services to high
technology. In all three of these categories, the criminals' ultimate
goal is to sell the counterfeited or stolen items for a profit.
Unlike criminals who engage in other types of criminal activity, those
who commit IP crimes can not easily be categorized. Counterfeiters,
software pirates, and trade secret thieves are as different as the
intellectual property they counterfeit, steal, and sell. In general,
software pirates have an acute interest in computers and by extension,
the Internet. Many counterfeiters hail from foreign countries, such as
South Korea, Vietnam, or Russia. They are frequently organized in a
loosely knit network of importers and distributors who use connections
in China, southeast Asia, or Latin America to have their counterfeit
and imitation products made inexpensively by grossly underpaid
laborers. There is also strong evidence that organized criminal groups
have moved into IP crime and that they are using the profits generated
from these crimes to facilitate other illegal activities. There are a
number of reasons for the dramatic increase in IP crime in recent
years. First, many forms of IP can be produced with minimal start-up
costs making IP crimes accessible to large numbers of people; second,
international enforcement of IP laws is virtually nonexistent; and
finally, domestic enforcement of IP laws has been inadequate and
consequently the level of deterrence has been inadequate.
One reason domestic law enforcement has not adequately enforced IP
laws is that modern IP crime is a new and different type of crime that
much of U.S. law enforcement is not yet familiar with. In years past,
most IPR violations involved a laborious process. For example, one
typically had to physically remove a box of blueprints in order to
steal a trade secret. Likewise, one had to manually copy bulky
cassette or video tapes to distribute pirated music or movies. The
computer revolution changed this. Desktop computers with computing and
storage power that was unimaginable ten to fifteen years ago, have
become commonplace. Computerized images, corporate plans and trade
secrets, computer software, and movies can be stored on computer discs
and carried in a shirt pocket. Individuals no longer have to
physically steal a product, they can simply download information or
transmit it electronically to a single accomplice or to tens of
thousands of people in an instant -- and they can do so with total
anonymity. It is hardly surprising that there are so many organized
"hacker" groups engaged in large scale distribution of pirated
products over the Internet or that there are also thousands of
web-sites that exist solely to distribute pirated products when the
money to be made from this type of activity can be significant, and
the risk of being caught so minimal.
Digital products and the Internet have greatly complicated IP
enforcement, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
Digital products can be reproduced almost instantaneously, repeatedly,
and inexpensively. New broad-band technologies will make the Internet
the primary method of conveyance of IP in the near future. Although
the Internet is likely to revolutionize distribution methods for
licensed digital products, as increasing numbers of products are
converted to a digital format, it will also further facilitate global
piracy of digital products on a previously unimaginable scale. All
experts agree that this new technology will continue to spread at an
unprecedented pace, and along with it, the related crimes.
OBJECTIVE
The primary objective of the FBI's IP program is to reduce the
economic loss associated with the counterfeiting and theft of U.S.
intellectual property by criminal conspiracies and other major
offenders.
STRATEGY
In order to accomplish its objective in the area of IP crime, the FBI
will focus on increasing both the quantity and quality of IP
investigations and prosecutions. This will be accomplished by
continuing to work closely with representatives of the IP industry and
educating the industry on the importance of filing criminal referrals
with the FBI whenever they suspect their company, or another company
in the intellectual property community, has been victimized by a
crime. Additionally, the FBI will work to cultivate productive
liaisons with other government agencies that work with the IP industry
and will strongly support other government agency and private sector
initiatives that focus on preventing and detecting IP crime. Another
important piece of the FBI's strategy is to provide its Agents with
more training and guidance in the area of IP crime so to better
prepare them to investigate this type of crime. Finally the FBI will
work closely with the private sector and other government agencies to
educate the general public about the growing problem of IP crime.
