Mexico Turns Product Piracy into an Organized Crime Amid new Bilateral Intellectual Property Rights Cooperation

After a year-long lobbying campaign by the local record and software industry as well as various national and international intellectual property associations decrying plummeting sales due to the wide market for pirated goods, the lower house of the Mexican Congress approved, on December 3, 2002, harsher penalties for product piracy, reclassifying the offense under federal codes governing organized crime. Under the new code, ringleaders could face from 20 to 40 years in prison, while their subordinates and accomplices can get from 10 to 20 years. Before that, the old law allowed a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison. In addition, maximum fines also were increased significantly. By redefining trafficking in pirated goods as organized crime, authorities also have wider scope in conducting their investigations, including the ability to tap phones and break open cases with the use of protected witnesses. The approval of the new law and the announcements by the government have to be seen in the context of new bilateral cooperation as well as recommendations and pressure for stronger unilateral and bilateral enforcement measures. At the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in October 2002 in Los Cabos, Mexico, the member states, including the United States and Mexico, have agreed to take more steps to curb product piracy and cooperating more closely in the enforcement of intellectual property treaties.