The problem of piracy seems to be taking its toll in the Asian market as bigwig Apple avoids opening its iTunes store to the region. Apple only recently unveiled the movie section of the iTunes store, and Steve Jobs then told the audience that although it would only be accessible to US residents for now, they will definitely expand and take it international by 2007.
   
By international, he apparently meant anywhere BUT Asia. Fearing that piracy will, too, get the better of iTunes, Apple has blocked out most of Asia in its new movie offering, as well as its well-established music store.  Australia and Japan are the only two countries that have iTunes store, and from what it looks like, they pretty much complete the list for Asia and Oceania.

It's not surprising why Apple would be hesitant to launch iTunes here. It's actually understandable. The intellectual property laws in the Asian region cannot be said to be at par with the rest of the international standards. True, the individual governments have been stepping up their efforts in killing piracy, but still, the problem is apparent and persisting. Lack of political will, and budget, can be pinpointed as the cause for the fledgling political efforts from the region. Although most, if not all, of the nations have pledged for the extinction of piracy, there's much more to be done before it can be said that the efforts are more than just lip service.

If the Asian region doesn't clean up its act on this piracy issue, they just might find other companies sheltering their products and technology from the region. Now that would be most unfortunate, don't you think?