Combating Piracy: Intellectual Property Theft and Fraud

Fraud and piracy of products and ideas have becomecommon in the early twenty-first century, as opportunitiesto commit them expand, and technology makes fraudand piracy easy to carry out. In Combating Piracy: IntellectualProperty Theft and Fraud, Jay S. Albanese and hiscontributors provide new analyses of intellectual propertytheft and how perpetrators innovate and adapt in responseto shifting opportunities.The cases described here illustrate the wide-rangingnature of the activity and the spectrum of personsinvolved in piracy of intellectual property. Intellectualproperty theft includes stolen copyrights, trademarks,trade secrets, and patents, which represent the creativework of individuals for which others cannot claim credit.The distributors of books, movies, music, and other formsof intellectual property pay for this right, and those whodistribute this work without compensation to its creatoreffectively hijack or "pirate" that property without theowner’s or distributor’s permission. The problem hasgrown to the point where most software in many partsof the world is pirated. The World Health Organizationestimates that 10 percent of all pharmaceuticals availableworldwide are counterfeit.Such widespread fraud illustrates the global reach ofthe problem and the need for international remedies thatinclude changed attitudes, public education, increasingthe likelihood of apprehension, and reducing availableopportunities. The contributors show that piracy is aform of fraud, a form of organized crime, a white-collarcrime, a criminal activity with causes we can isolate andprevent, and a global problem. This book examines eachof these perspectives to determine how they contributeto our understanding of the issues involved.

Jay S. Albanese has served as the chief of the International Center at the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the research and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Justice (2002-2006), on leave from his position as a professor of government and public policy at Virginia Commonwealth University. He is the author of seven books including Criminal Justice and Organ/zed Crime in Our Times, and contributor to Comparative Criminal Justice Systems.