Juliana Borre
Reporter - Agência Brasil

Brasília - On Friday (18), the National Council to Combat Piracy and Intellectual Property Violations (CNCP) unanimously approved the measures contained in the Plan of Action to Combat Piracy. The Council, which is composed of representatives of the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches, civil society, and the recording, audiovisual, computer software, and book publishing industries, ratified 16 of the measures presented in February by the Strategic Planning Workshop and added another 83.

The measures to combat piracy will be educational, disciplinary, and economic in nature. Among the 99 proposals are: the creation of public attorney's offices, police precincts, and courts specialized in this type of case; the inclusion of this theme in university courses, particularly law; cooperation with neighboring countries for border inspection; the establishment of public-private partnerships to prepare publicity campaigns; the creation of less expensive alternative products, and the study of ways to reduce the costs of legitimate products.

The executive secretary of the Ministry of Justice, Luiz Paulo Barreto, president of the CNCP, explained that the Ministry intends to prepare a plan to identify who will be responsible for applying the measures and how they will proceed. The Council believes that, if the plan is implemented efficiently, it can reverse the situation of piracy in Brazil, combatting organized crime and the piracy mafias.

The president of the CNCP added that those who sell pirated merchandise are not the focus of the measures. "Street vendors are not our target; going after them doesn't help. Our focus is on organized crime, on the production and distribution of illegal merchandise, since this is in mafia hands."

The "Cheap Turns Out Expensive" campaign, envisioned in the plan, is meant to make consumers more aware of the risks represented by pirated goods. "We shall orient them not to consider only the price of the product. Price is not always the best criterion for deciding on a purchase. The quality is inferior, and this can result in much bigger losses for consumers. This is the case, for example, with tennis sneakers, medications, eyeglasses, and auto parts," Barreto claims.

Piracy inflicts annual losses of US$ 30 billion (R$ 84 billion) on Brazil.

Translation: David Silberstein