Like the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) in the United Kingdom, the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) is stepping up its fight against software piracy in the video game industry.  This time the organization is taking their case to the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) with a "Special 301" filing for help in calling upon several countries to improve their copyright enforcement policies, and in some cases open up their markets to give legitimate software a better chance at becoming mainstream.

While China, Latin America, and Russia were natural points of contention in the Special 301 report, the ESA is also pointing its finger at several countries in Europe, as well as Canada, for lax enforcement of Intellectual property rights (IPR).  The ESA notes that saturation of piracy in Central and Southern American, Asian, Eastern European, and the Middle Eastern markets in particular can "exceed 80 and 90 percent"; yup, there's that statistic again.  Overcoming the challenge of thriving markets for pirated games will mean addressing issues like their production for import and export, limited market access for legitimate software as well the bureaucratic red tape which holds back development, general failure to prioritize copyright and intellectual property enforcement, and of course, rampant online file sharing.