Put China on piracy blacklist, says US copyright alliance

Music, film and software companies in the United States have criticised China's efforts to curb piracy and demanded the mainland be placed on a blacklist of countries with the worst records of protecting intellectual property rights, which can lead to trade sanctions.

The International Intellectual Property Alliance, representing 1,500 companies in copyright-based industries, said piracy accounted for 90 per cent of China's domestic market and cost US companies US$2.5 billion last year.

'Our objective is to persuade the Chinese government that they must take real, not rhetorical, deterrent enforcement action that ... significantly reduces the rampant piracy that afflicts their entire country,' alliance president Eric Smith said.

On Wednesday, the group petitioned the US Trade Representative (USTR) for immediate negotiations with China under the WTO framework, and asked that the country be placed on the USTR's 'priority watch list' - a relatively obscure section of US trade law known as the Special 301 provisions.

Under section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, the USTR is required to identify countries that deny adequate protection for intellectual property rights, with the worst offenders facing trade sanctions.

The alliance's demands illustrate the degree to which the government and US industries can resort to non-World Trade Organisation mechanisms in trade disputes with China.