Copyright and Patent Fraud by David Lee Roth 12th hon. Pibb January 5, 1998 Roth 1 Today, more than ever before, products, goods, and services are being provided by businesses of all variations. Fewer and fewer people today are self-sufficient. Practically no one today makes his or her own clothes, and some people do not even prepare their own meals. Today's business world and modern day technology make it possible for people to obtain almost anything and everything they need or want, provided they have the money to buy it. There are gardening, music, painting, moving, clothing, and countless other businesses all around the world. Undoubtedly, there is a business for practically anything one could think of, and many people have gained great success and wealth by finding these needs and filling them. With all this success and wealth, it is not surprising that ideas are often stolen by other people in the hopes of gaining great wealth themselves. The success of many of these businesses has caused the copying of many materials. Although many diverse ideas and products are "stolen," the biggest problems are clothing and software. The majority of copying and fraud involve software, like CDs, tapes, and computer programs, but there also is a huge market for clothing items like jeans, shirts, and sunglasses. Roth 2 CD piracy is currently the fastest-growing counterfeiting threat, with China and Bulgaria suspected as the largest of the counterfeiters, according to Mike Edwards of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Edwards claims that worldwide piracy from street bootleggers, to organized crime, robs the recording industry of about 2.5 billion dollars or 6.5 per cent of the industry's annual sales. (Edwards 6) However, it is not always a product that is being copied. As in one case, Miller Brewing Co. has developed a new beer with a label that appears to be aimed at taking customers away from Anheuser-Busch Co.
