US Government To Crack Down On Digital Pirates

The US government and the entertainment industry in the country have joined forces to fight piracy on a larger scale. The duo wants to crack down on music and movie piracy by pressurizing foreign governments to comply, or face trade barriers by the WTO. Since last year, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and other entertainment industry representatives have been actively trying to stop piracy and have succeeded to some extent. The intellectual property industry and law enforcement officials estimate U.S. companies lose as much as $250 billion per year to Internet pirates, who swap digital copies. Entertainment and other copyright exports are worth about $626 billion annually, which is 6 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product. This is why the United States government has pledged active interest in stopping the digital pirates. At present, China and Russia top the list with the most notorious pirates while Sweden has strained its relationship with the States, thanks to the Pirate Bay fiasco.