Pirate CDs industry marching to new records

According to the data provided by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry global sales of pirate CDs rose up to 4 percent comparing to an estimated $4.5 bn of the last year. The ratio is such - one of every three CDs is a fake.

Sales of illegal discs were a record 1.1 billion units, or 35 percent of the total, Jay Berman, chairman of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said in a conference in London. China and Russia are the largest markets for pirated discs, reports Moscow Times.

The world's biggest record companies, including Universal Music and EMI Group, have partly blamed illegal CDs and the unauthorized downloading of songs from the Internet for a four-year recession in the $32 billion industry. Sony Music Chief Executive Andrew Lack said that piracy may be "even more challenging" than illegal song swapping online.

As Reuters informed, the IFPI named its top ten offending countries in its annual report, including G8 member Russia and Spain, the only European Union entry on the list.

Other perennial hot spots on this year's list were Brazil, China, Taiwan, Ukraine, Thailand, Mexico, Paraguay, and first-time entry Pakistan, which replaced Poland.

"In several of the music industry's very largest markets -- countries with low rates of (Internet) broadband penetration such as Brazil, Mexico and Russia -- piracy of physical discs still dwarfs its Internet equivalent," said IFPI chairman Jay Berman in the annual report.