Some 95% of Moroccan music products are affected by piracy, a magazine aired by national TV "TVM" on Wednesday indicated. 
"Echoeco" said 95% of audio and compact disc music products is found in the black market.
According to the report, organized groups exploit new technologies of information and communication to manufacture and illicitly distribute audio cassettes, CDs, video tapes and VCDs with an estimated production capacity of some 400,000 cassettes and 600,000 CDs a week. Losses resulting from pirating and counterfeiting CDs and cassettes are put at about MD 200 million (some US$ 23.5 million).
Pirated VCDs and DVDs affect Moroccan cinema as well, as cinemagoers dropped to 6 million in 2005 compared to 20 million in the 1990s, MAP reported.
Piracy costs Morocco MD 2 billion of economic losses per annum with an average rate of over 70pc in the sectors of software, music and cinema, according to the Communication Ministry and Le Bureau Marocain du Droit d'Auteur (Moroccan Office for Authors' Rights).
© 2005 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
