Brasília, August 12, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - The federal government is going to wage a new offensive against piracy in Brazil. A national educational campaign is being prepared to raise popular awareness of the harm done by the consumption of falsified products and to impede their entry into the country. According to the president of the Interministerial Committee to Combat Piracy, Federal Police commissioner Clóvis da Silva Monteiro, within fifteen days posters containing information about this type of crime will be affixed in ports, airports, and bus stations.
The committee, which was created in 2001 for the purpose of coordinating and planning programs to combat piracy, is composed of representatives of the Ministries of Justice, Culture, Finance, Foreign Relations, Science and Technology, and Development, Industry, and Foreign Trade. Among the challenges faced by the body is the insertion of the battle against piracy into the context of the Mercosur. At the moment, Brazil is the only member of the bloc that has a central organization to combat the sale of falsified products.
Nevertheless, according to Monteiro, the country still lacks official data on the economic damages caused by the sale of falsified products. All that exist are estimates, such as that of the Association for the Defense of Intellectual Property, which claims losses of approximately US$ 120 million per year just in the audiovisual sector.
The second challenge is to instruct police officers about what is, in fact, piracy. The National Police Academy has already introduced classes on intellectual property in its curriculum and intends to extend this subject to state civil and military police academies.
The third, big challenge singled out by the coordinator of the committee is raising popular awareness that piracy constitutes a crime, specified in article 180 of the Penal Code, prescribing punishments of a fine and one to four years' imprisonment for anyone who acquires, receives, or transports objects he (she) knows to be of illegal origin.
In February, 2003, the Federal Police conducted its most recent operation to combat piracy on a national scale, Operation Corsair III. The operation, carried out in Pernambuco, seized 406,758 recorded CD's, 29,528 blank CD's, and 56,559 cases and various inserts for CD's, which, according to the commissioner, are the most pirated product nowadays in Brazil. (DAS)
