CEOs unite to fight piracy

Microsofts Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, EMI’s Eric Nicoli and GlaxoSmithKline’s Andrew Witty were among the CEOs taking part in the meeting of BASCAP – Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy – in London.

"BASCAP is about commanding respect for intellectual property in all its forms, regardless of industry or geography,” said Eric Nicoli, Chairman, EMI, and BASCAP Co-Chair. “We live in an age where virtually every sector in every country on the planet is contaminated by piracy and counterfeiting and this is having devastating effects on our businesses, the economy and wider society.”

The meeting, arranged under the aegis of the International Chamber of Commerce, resulted in an initial four-point plan of action, which aims to:

• create counterfeiting and piracy indices, identifying issues that deserve greater attention within national IP protection programmes;
• develop a clearinghouse to share best practices and strategies and leverage existing industry efforts;
• compile a compendium of case studies and statistics – the first global, cross-sectoral stocktake of the counterfeiting and piracy problem – which can be shared between businesses and governments; and
• develop educational materials for policy makers and the public to explain why IP rights should be respected and enforced.