ABSTRACT:
This publication details the background, empirical and analytical research undertaken during the Intellectual Property Theft and Organised Crime research project (IPTOC) and provides a robust insight into contemporary consumption of counterfeit/pirated goods and illegal downloading in England and Northern Ireland.
The research outlined in this report is premised upon the belief that while significant attention has been placed upon developing technical solutions to prevent the copying of products (eg digital rights managements, holograms, and increased complexity of product design) and analysis of legal and policy issues relating to copyright and intellectual property theft (IPT), there remains a significant lack of research investigating demand side/consumption aspects of the counterfeiting market. The results of the project demonstrate that the consumption of counterfeit, pirated and other fake goods is a common, widespread and normalised practice to those who purchase them and that this presents a significant challenge to the government, affected industries and enforcement agencies. This summary is divided into two parts. The first provides a general summary of the research and key findings of the IPTOC project. The second provides a series of more focused ‘datasheets’ which concentrate on providing an overview of the project results on an industry sector by sector basis.
