The Current Discussion:Software and media piracy costs U.S. businesses as much as US$58 billion a year. Will the U.S.'s anti-piracy report announced last week do any good? If not, what will?
I am not at all surprised at the findings of the U.S. Trade representative's report that the U.S. loses $58 billion a year to software and media piracy. According to IIPA (International Intellectual Property Alliance), a private sector coalition that represents 1,300 U.S. companies involved in copyright-based industry and business, global trade losses to piracy in 2004 alone amounted to an estimated US$12.5 billion. China's piracy level of 95% is the world’s highest.
Compared with China's, Mexico's piracy levels averaged only 67.8% in 2004, but still caused US$862.2 million in losses, second only to Brazil (US$960.9 million in losses) among Latin American countries where massive copyright violations take place.
But the really unsettling fact is that 70% of Mexico's copyright piracy is done in just one barrio, Tepito, not very far from the Zócalo (Mexico City's main square), and the Palacio Nacional, the President's palace. Tepito's 72 blocks cover an area comparable to that of New York's East Village and are filled with remarkable historical landmarks. Founded on the outskirts of 18th-century Mexico City, Tepito grew to be the capital's artisan and guild quarter par excellence. Many street names in Tepito bear witness to those bygone colonial times, as in "Calle de los Panaderos" (Bakers’ street) or "Calle de los Plomeros" (Plumbers’ street).
But local police have ceded control of the district to ruthless drug gangs. Under-trained and poorly-paid police officers have chosen to join with powerful criminal mafias rather than fight against them. In the heart of Mexico's capital, Tepito is now something of a "protectorate" of the infamous Tijuana drug cartel, the unflagging archrival of the companies that IIPA represents.
The whole barrio is now a thriving illicit marketplace with a thick human shield, harboring more than 500 underground digital labs, not to mention numerous warehouses where drugs and stolen goods are stashed. A maze of stands crowd Tepito's streets. They sell anything imaginable: stolen stereos; pirated DVDs, music CDs, business and entertainment software; counterfeit brand-name clothes and shoes; even endangered bird species. Tourists can also haggle for of illegally imported or stolen genuine Levi's and Rolexes. The prices of weapons such as AK-47 assault rifles and Uzi submachine guns are listed in illustrated catalogues.
And now the problem is spreading, not just within Mexico but to other Latin American countries. In Venezuela, a barrio on Caracas’s west side has adopted this Mexican "protectorate" pattern for about ten years running. Catia's labs and warehouses reportedly employ thousands of people, but despite sky-high profits from that illicit trafficking, Catians count themselves among the poorest people in Venezuela. On any given day, children equipped with walkie-talkies and cell phones patrol the limits of the hillside barrios that shelter the labs, reporting (to whom?) anything suspicious.
I shall have to read the US Trade Representative’s report to learn how much money is lost to piracy in Venezuela's major cities. But one thing is certain: the dizzyingly fast decay of our legal and police institutions. With our government officials yielding to illicit global activities, ranging from drug-trafficking to arms smuggling, Venezuela’s traditional populist petrostate nonsense will soon seem like child's play. When high-ranking government officials condone these illicit activities, it is hard to imagine what U.S. agencies can do about it.
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