Countries including Sweden, Spain, Italy and Greece all placed on the USTR Watch List
A new report entitled Special 301 Review, filed by the International Intellectual Property Alliance in conjunction with games publisher association the ESA, has highlighted the countries in which piracy remains a huge problem – and several European countries have made the list.
Alongside ongoing piracy hotspots such as China and Russia, a number of European countries were identified in the report including the Sweden, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain and Turkey. All were placed on the USTR’s Watch List for failure to execute sufficient levels of intellectual property rights protection.
“The Administration’s top priorities this year continue to be addressing weak IPR protection and enforcement, particularly in China and Russia,” the report states. “Although this year’s Special 301 Report shows positive progress in many countries, rampant counterfeiting and piracy problems have continued to plague China and Russia, indicating a need for stronger IPR regimes and enforcement in those countries.
“In addition to China and Russia, the Special 301 Report sets out significant concerns with respect to such trading partners as Argentina, Chile, India, Israel, Pakistan, Thailand, and Venezuela. In addition, the report notes that the United States will consider all options, including, but not limited to, initiation of dispute settlement consultations in cases where countries do not appear to have implemented fully their obligations under the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement).”
“The increased availability of broadband Internet connections around the world has made the Internet an extremely efficient vehicle for disseminating pirated products. Internet piracy is a significant concern in a number of countries, including Canada, China, Sweden, Spain, and Russia, among others.”
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Comments
too little too late
the last 10 ds lites ive sold this week, the cusotmers have all asked for R4 cards, and dont believe that its illegal, they then leave the shop with just the console and no games.
we sell alot of arcade 360s as customers buy the cheapest model to flash it and download all games, plus they can get copied games before UK launch due to USA copies. I think its a huge problem,
IPs should be banned and firmware needs to be looked at to stop this, i have customers that brag about playing games online with flashed xboxs, as there is now a way around getting banned from xbox live.
Re: too little too late
totally agree with henry ford, way to little to late, we had a nintendo rep tell us not to buy to many professor laytons as its been crack on R4 already. hopefully the new DSI will help stops this.
we get loads of people asking for R4 cards and they get a very rude answer, there are still many geunie customers out there but some people really dont know they are breaking the law and stealing, others just dont give a damn
as for the 360 well the xbox live ban has worked for a while but as you say flashing is coming back again and many people now have two console , one for on line and the other to play copys.
i cant see a easy way to beat it, but the console company need to find a better way to protect software, its not there fault but they are the only people who can start making it harder, and software company need to ad software that can detect flashing ( i have no idea how that can be done )
although many indies out there are honest , i know a few so called back street shops that will chip anything and sell Wii consoles with 50 games, which is why Wii games just sit on the shelf
i think most customers are good honest people and want original games on there shelf and its up to shops to not sell R4 card or chip/ flash machine and if you do repairs refuse to repair modded machine and ban the customer, its no great lost as they dont buy games anyway
does anybody know if blueray has been cracked yet ?????
Re: Re: too little too late
one more thing, maybe someone should stop the big internet companys selling R4 cards if customers cant buy them then they cant use them !
might stop it completely but it would help
Re: Re: Re: too little too late
i agree r4 units are getting on my nerves the people i work with say "r4 units are the best thing and it not illegal" i wish nintendos dsi is anti-r4 i find it hard to sell games to customers now cause if it
at least some people like myself bye the real thing
Re: Re: Re: Re: too little too late
R4 card itself is not illegal just like a blank dvd is not illegal but if you nick a load of games from nintendo you are breaking the law and stopping nintendo getting money to make more games. so ineffect you are destroying the games you like to play by not paying for them. low life scumbags who do this are funding major crime !!!!!!!
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: too little too late
"low life scumbags who do this are funding major crime "
You know, they use the same argument on films and music. You know how many music artists and hollywood actors are active drug abusers... i.e. funding major crime?
The problem with retailers (other than their greed) is the basic ignorant assumption that ALL r4 users are illegal game downloaders. I can pretty much guarantee that not one of you asks "what are you going to use the r4 for?", you'd rather jump to conclusions and condemn everyone out of pure greed.
I'm not denying that there are people who buy them for the wrong reason, but to condemn every single person is just ignorant and to be quite honest, downright offensive. One day you'll do it to the wrong person and they will justifiably give you a smack for doing it and then sue you for slander.
Re: lee c too little too late
leec you have a point that somepeople may very well be using r4 cards for legal purpose but you know as well as i do that most people dont ! my comments are directed at the people who break the law and in that case if you fancy giving me a smack or sueing me the number is in the telephone book lee !
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