India on US'' copyright piracy ''priority watch list''

The US has placed 12 countries that includes India, China, Russia on a "priority watch list" for ''failing to sufficiently protect American producers of music, movies and other copyrighted material from widespread piracy''.

The nine countries placed on the priority watch list were Argentina, Chile, Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela.

The 12 countries will now be subject to extra scrutiny that could eventually lead to economic sanctions if the US administration decides to bring trade cases before the World Trade Organisation.

Another 31 countries have been placed on lower level monitoring lists, indicating the concerns about copyright violations in those nations did not warrant the highest level of scrutiny.

The annual "Special 301 Report," said that China has a special stake in upgrading its protection of intellectual property rights, as its own companies will be threatened by rampant copyright piracy as they increase their own innovation.

Each year the US administration is required to report to the Congress the problems American companies face globally with copyright piracy, which they the US administration says deprives of revenues worth billions of dollars in lost sales.