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.

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