Efforts Mounting For Anti-Piracy Solutions

During the recent REPLItech Europe conference, the issue of how to combat piracy was addressed with the announcement of several initiatives to combat the problem.The International Recording Media Association (IRMA) announced that it was working on a compliance certificate program that will result in disc replicators having to submit to on-site audits every six months if they want to remain a member of the organization. IRMA is aiming to have standards and procedures finalized by June at the REPLItech convention in San Francisco.IRMA Executive Vice President Charles Van Horn says that the compliance program is being devised because members have sought guidance in combating piracy. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has already filed suit in federal court on behalf of its member record companies against Pioneer Video Manufacturing, Inc, (PVM) located in Carson, California. The RIAA is asking the court for a permanent injunction and monetary damages to compensate the record companies for the hundreds of allegedly unauthorized sound recordings named in the complaint. The suit claims that Pioneer knew that numerous orders it accepted for pressing were pirate discs. Pioneer is not commenting on the suit stating that Pioneer does not comment on pending litigation as a matter of corporate policy. The issue is complex because there will always be instances of unintentional infringement in the case of compliance with the RIAA program. IRMAís Van Horn says that a court should distinguish ""the difference between an innocent infringer and a willful"" one.The newly formed Optical Media Manufacturing Equipment, Services and Raw Materials Association has organized an anti-piracy program similar to IRMAís. Known as the Anti Piracy Covenant, the plan calls for the establishment of checklist procedures before equipment deliveries will be made to optical media manufacturers, and such deliveries must be in full compliance with the source identification system.Dow Plastics has proposed an independent legal entity that would track the supply of polymers similar to the way that the supply of paper used for money is tracked. Dow hopes to license its proprietary polymer to replicators so their hardware would be able to distinguish between ""legitimate"" polymers and others.Another proposal with merits has been put forth by the U.K.-based International Federation of Phonographic Industry (IFPI). The measure would establish an e-mail network that will ask prerecorded music manufacturers to alert the IFPI every time they turn down an order because the world-be customer could not prove copyright ownership.