Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy
Opening Speech by Jean-René Fourtou, BASCAP meeting, 26 November, ICC HQ, Paris

I would like to announce the start of a major new initiative by ICC to fight the piracy of intellectual property rights and the production of counterfeit goods worldwide.

I invite you all to join forces with us and to build a united front in this fight.

ICC is prepared to tackle the critical economic and social dislocations posed by mass piracy and counterfeiting.

As many of you are aware, this illegal activity is spiralling out of control. It is a major threat. It's like a cancer.

Estimated at over 600 billion dollars annually, a disorder of this magnitude creates a significant drain on the global economy - undermining economic development, a sound market economy system and open international trade and investment.

Piracy and counterfeiting now affect all of us and all of our companies.

This illegal activity is a threat to health and safety.

Digitally recorded intellectual property is also highly susceptible to piracy. Annual losses in the music industry are estimated at 5 billion dollars. Globally, it's hard to believe, but 2 of every 5 recordings are pirate copies.

The same goes for software, where losses reached nearly 29 billion dollars in 2003.

And the list goes on.

Counterfeiting and piracy are crimes and the economic losses they entail are enormous. The victims include the creators who are not rewarded for their effort, governments who lose hundreds of millions in tax revenues, economies that are deprived of new investment and consumers who get less diversity and less choice.

The secretary general of Interpol, Ron Noble, said recently: "What I find absolutely amazing is that this is a multi-billion dollar problem that affects the safety of people, the security of governments, that is connected to organized crime, d rug trafficking and terrorism … and nobody pressures me to say what I'm doing about this problem. There is no pressure to produce results."

And this brings me to another important point. This is illegal and this is organized crime. Easy profits from piracy and counterfeiting have recently been equated to the global trade in illegal drugs - which has led the FBI to state that counterfeiting and piracy will become "the crime of the 21st century".

In our ICC statement to G8 leaders this year, we urged governments to reinforce the respect of international obligations in the intellectual property field and requested that the G8 take the lead in improving the enforcement of existing laws.

At the ICC World Congress in Marrakesh we had a well-attended and very successful session on the need to protect intellectual property. During and after that session, many corporate leaders appealed to ICC to take a leading role in the fight against counterfeiting and piracy.

They cited ICC's unique role as the voice of world business, its credibility and legitimacy, its existing network of national committees and member companies around the world, its cross-sectoral representation and the work of its Task Force on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights.

Now, we're going to respond to this call to action and build upon our early progress… and I am launching a new ICC initiative, entitled "Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy".

ICC will begin emphasizing IP enforcement priorities with governments and enforcement officials - calling them to action, petitioning for the re-allocation of resources, and pressing for results.

Our first set of objectives will be to:

1. Conduct an assessment of what is being done in the various sectors - from music and movies, to luxury goods, tobacco, food, drugs and auto parts. Strategies differ from sector to sector, and BASCAP presents an opportunity to:
a. Build a network to exchange experiences and best practices and to increase and our collective knowledge.
b. Trigger synergies
c. Take actions in key areas that benefit everyone.

2. Create a map of the state of regulations and enforcement capabilities, country by country.
a. Which policies, regulations and enforcement measures have been effective?
b. Why are some governments failing to perform?

Our objective of BASCAP is to undertake this research for our collective benefit.

3. Agree on priorities and create action plans for targeted countries.
a. To speak with one voice to policymakers,
b. And possibly to launch national media campaigns addressing the full range of IP counterfeiting and piracy issues in key countries

I believe that the broad base of BASCAP is also a perfect place for us to better quantify the economic losses associated with the illegal, under ground activity of counterfeiting and piracy.

Overall, I hope you will agree that BASCAP is a necessary engagement at a time when the creation and distribution of intellectual property has become a key driver of world economic growth.

It is imperative that business unites and acts at a global level now.

ICC's Task Force on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights, which is co-chaired by Universal Music and Microsoft, is made up of members of more than 25 countries including the Czech Republic, Brazil, India, Pakistan, Russia, Israel, Japan, France, Germany, England and the United States.

We have already had positive reactions to our proposals from a number of companies, some of which are here today. And in two weeks, I will hold another stakeholder meeting in New York.

At this stage, we need more companies and leaders to join us, to give us their advice and support and to help us launch this initiative.

The purpose of this meeting is to get your reactions to our proposals and to get your input and suggestions.

Our next step is to transform these ideas into actions. So I urge you to give us your advice today, to help us prepare for a working meeting of this group in late January.

We are also creating a global leadership group of CEOs to raise the profile of our efforts. I encourage you to promote BASCAP within your organisation and bring the initiative to the attention of your CEO.

Each of you will also receive a letter seeking your opinion and a response regarding the participation of your company in the initiative.

In closing, I would like to personally invite you to be part of our team.
Together, we have the opportunity to make the voice of business heard at a time when it is needed most.

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