Incidents reported last week include seizures of counterfeit clothing, movies and music in Ireland... Other large seizures of pirated movies and music took place in India and the US… Indian authorities also made seizures of pirated software products and Indian computer dealers held a one-day strike to protest at ongoing anti-piracy raids… Elsewhere, in Germany 40 tonnes of counterfeit roller bearings have been destroyed that could have posed a health hazard… Symantec Corp. is suing eight businesses it claims are selling counterfeit versions of the company's products.

Policy developments reported last week include the UK’s audiovisual industry launching a $6 million campaign against copyright theft that will shift the focus away from enforcement and criminality to educating the public of the damaging effects of piracy… A summit in the US gave its support to legislation that aims to crack down on intellectual property theft; also in the US America’s Watchdog has formed Global Piracy & Counterfeiting Consultants aimed at combating global piracy and counterfeiting… In Fiji the Audio Visual Industry has called on the interim Government to take up alternate enforcement measures in the fight against piracy.

Studies reported last week included a report showing that in the Czech Republic there has been a fall in counterfeit products being seized in comparison to the same period in 2006… The fourth annual global PC software piracy study was released last week by the Business Software Alliance (BSA), and suggests that piracy cost the global software industry nearly $40bn last year.