Study finds that Canadians love their pirated merchandise

Following up on my earlier blogging about Canada's pre-eminence in the world of software piracy comes this press release from CNW Group about Canadian's willingness to purchase pirated goods.

TORONTO, Feb. 27 /CNW/ - A significant number of Canadians - two-fifths of the population - acknowledge purchasing counterfeit goods, a new POLLARA survey finds. Twenty-eight percent of respondents to the national poll admitted knowingly purchasing counterfeit products, while 12 percent said theyfound out later. The combined figure is slightly more than triple the proportion found inthe United States by Gallup. There, just 13 percent of Americans purchased,copied or downloaded imitation or counterfeit products. The Canadian numbers give cause for alarm because according to the RCMP,organized crime is a "primary actor" in Canada's multi-billion dollar marketfor counterfeit products. Interpol has found that the profits from selling counterfeit goods are being used to finance international criminal organizations and global terrorism. "This is a dismaying number, much higher than expected. It shows that ourgovernment's failure to effectively address intellectual property crime hasled to wide-spread acceptance of product counterfeiting in Canada," said Brian Isaac, Chair of the Canadian Anti-Counterfeiting Network (CACN) Legislation Committee, and a partner with Smart & Biggar, Canada's largest IP law boutique.

But Canadians aren't all a bunch of scurvy dogs, the study finds:

However, the poll, conducted by POLLARA on behalf of the CACN, anon-profit coalition united in the fight against counterfeiting and piracy,also revealed that, when Canadians are informed that proceeds of the counterfeit market go to organized crime, the vast majority (86 percent) would be less likely to buy counterfeit products. "If there is a silver lining here, it is the evidence that Canadians will refrain from buying counterfeit goods when they know about the involvement of organized crime," said Lorne Lipkus, Chair of the CACN Education and Training Committee and a partner with Kestenberg Siegal Lipkus LLP, a leading anti-counterfeiting law firm. "This tells us that, if we pass the right laws, empower our police forces, and educate our citizens, then we can solve this problem."

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