News
Brazil, Egypt and UK among worst copyright regimes in the world
18 Apr 2011
Brazil, Egypt and United Kingdom among worst copyright
regimes in the world, new consumer study reveals
- Latest annual global survey
finds intellectual property
laws continue to
penalise consumers
- Two-thirds of countries failed in at least one
area
- Evidence of industry seeking copyright infringement
convictions without trial
Consumers International today released its third annual
Intellectual Property report, IP Watchlist.
The report rates 24 countries from all world regions on how well
their intellectual property systems take into consideration the
interests of consumers in accessing educational and cultural
products such as books and music.
The worst
The ten worst-rated countries were:
10. Serbia
9. Solvenia
8. Armenia
7. Egypt
6. Argentina
5. Belarus
4. Brazil
3. United Kingdom
2. Chile
1. Thailand
Developing countries
Across 11 different areas such as educational use, library use,
and freedom to share and transfer information, there was no country
that scored top marks. More than two-thirds of countries received
the lowest grade in at least one of those areas.
Developing countries already have amongst the least
consumer-friendly laws, yet copyright owner lobbyists seek to make
these even tougher: for example, pushing for laws in the
Philippines to allow citizens to be convicted of copyright
infringement without a trial.
The questions
The IP Watchlist analysis highlights four specific
questions as examples of where intellectual property laws are
failing consumers. One of these questions asks, "Is there
provision to penalise the obstruction of consumers' exercise of
user rights?" Not one country answered "yes".
Jeremy Malcolm, CI IP Programme Coordinator, explains:
"In many countries, consumers who circumvent limitations on
their digital devices and products, for example by ripping a DVD
onto their digital home entertainment system, are breaking the law
and can be fined or worse. But a supplier who places such
limitations on a consumer's property so that it can't be used for
fair dealing purposes that the law allows, receives no penalty at
all. We don't think this is fair."
Paying for free material
The report mentions some of the best and worst practices that
were encountered around the world in the development of the
survey.
Amongst the best practices is the development of a low-cost disc
format in Brazil, that competes on price with pirated products.
Amongst the practices criticised were an Australian government
policy that requires educators to pay copyright fees for using
material from freely available public websites.
Jeremy Malcolm of CI says:
"By bringing the shortcomings of the world's intellectual
property regimes to light, we hope to help create the impetus for
their reform. It is encouraging that a number of countries have
proposals on the table to make copyright law fairer for consumers.
But there are also moves to do the opposite - including a push from
industry to convict alleged copyright infringers without a trial.
That's why consumers need to remain vigilant about their rights to
access educational and cultural products."
Download the
Consumers International IP Watchlist 2011.