Piracy

When Peruvian author Alfredo Bryce Echenique visited Lima last year to promote his latest book, he found illegal copies circulating before he even finished his tour. Worst yet, the pirate publishers indiscriminately hacked out sections of "Don't Wait for Me in April" to cut down on their own printing costs. Most Peruvians would not be surprised that Bryce, an internationally known novelist who now lives in Paris, would be pirated in his native land.

In an effort to avert a multibillion-dollar trade war, China on Wednesday shut down three more rogue factories, even as Washington's top trade official was to board a plane to Beijing today for last-minute talks on copyright piracy. Days before a Sunday deadline to show "concrete progress" on halting the illegal copying of U.S. music, software and films, Chinese officials revoked the licenses of two factories in Guangdong province as trade negotiator Lee Sands met with authorities there.

The United States and China averted a trade war over copyright protection Monday, but analysts say the fight against Chinese counterfeiters is far from over and that Washington could use more help from its allies. Trade analysts said Washington will have to keep up the pressure on Beijing to enforce the accord and that future confrontations are likely over piracy of copyrights, trademarks and patents.

After a two-week crackdown by Chinese officials that resulted in the closing of 15 notorious pirate compact disc factories, the United States on Monday withdrew threatened sanctions against $2 billion worth of products made in China, averting a trade war between the two countries. "We have determined that important actions have been taken" by the Chinese government, acting U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky said in Beijing. "As a result, sanctions will not be imposed."

In a harsh indictment of current defense policies, Bob Dole blasted the Clinton administration on Tuesday for policies that he said had encouraged a "rogue's gallery of terrorists" to develop nuclear and missile technologies that could be aimed against the United States.

Federal prosecutors Thursday charged nine people, including the owner of a Sun Valley manufacturing firm, with participating in the nation's largest cable television piracy scam, a conspiracy that allegedly bilked cable companies and taxpayers out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

China on Sunday trumpeted the recent shutdown of plants that had been making illegal video and laser discs. The announcement came before a new round of copyright talks with the United States this week that are aimed at averting a trade war over piracy.

Latin American software bandits are squeezing the industry out of about $1.5 billion a year, computer giant Microsoft Corp. said last week. Some experts estimate that counterfeit software currently accounts for 85% of all sales within Latin America. But recent moves by governments throughout the region, which is a growing market for Microsoft, have resulted in tougher penalties for software pirates.

Authorities announced Monday they had broken up the nation's largest videotape piracy ring with the arrest of 35 people in New York, an operation so sophisticated that it sold copies of such movies as "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" and "The Nutty Professor" before the films opened in theaters.

In September 1993, a secretary at Warner Bros. Records was grazing online and noticed that some kids were discussing the music on a new Depeche Mode CD. The problem was, the album hadn't yet been released in the United States. "It kind of panicked us. We were alarmed," said Jeff Gold, senior vice president at the company. Bootlegging and piracy are not uncommon in the music industry. But piracy usually occurs after a piece of music has been distributed in stores.