The International Intellectual Property Alliance has released its annual estimate of the losses American producers of copyrighted works lost to international piracy in 2001. According to the IIPA, American producers of intellectual property—which includes motion pictures, records and other music, business software, entertainment software and books—lost a total of $8.3 billion to pirates in 2001, compared to $8.0 billion in 2000. The losses are from 51 countries surveyed by the IIPA.
Book piracy fell slightly in the year, to $636.4 million from $653.3 million in 2000. According to the IIPA findings, Russia was the largest book pirate in 2001, accounting for losses estimated at $48 million. Book piracy in Pakistan and the Philippines is estimated to have cost U.S. book publishers $44 million in each country last year. Other countries where U.S. publishers are believed to have lost significant sales to pirates are India, $37 million; South Korea, $35 million; the Dominican Republic, $32 million; Thailand, $28 million; and Turkey, $27 million. Among countries that reduced piracy were Brazil, from $18 million to $14 million, and South Africa, from $21 million to $19 million.
