Pirate CD manufacturers

["Karen L. Newcombe" <kln@crl.com>]

This topic keeps coming up in the group (bootlegging, copyright theft, 
intellectual property) so this article may be of interest.

The Journal of Commerce for 8/16 reports that the US trade minister has 
demanded that China close 26 "renegade compact disc factories" who are 
estimated to produce (I'm going to shout here) 75 MILLION CDs each year 
which are sold around the world in violation of the GATT agreements.

All the music produced at these factories is pirated; no payments are 
made to the music publishers, the owners of the copyrights, or the 
musicians themselves.

China has replied that they would immediately close four of the factories 
and investigate six others.  Unfortunately they view these CD factories 
as economy boosters and measures against such operations are usually not 
very harsh, or very permanent.

The U.S. has threatened sanctions against China worth $800 million in 
trade goods if steps are not taken to protect intellectual property such 
as music in China.

Karen  kln@crl.com