Brazil is celebrating the National Anti-Piracy Day, today, with a ceremony in the capital BrasÀlia, at the Congress, where 500,000 illegal CDs will be destroyed.
According to the director general of the association of CD producers (Associação Brasileira dos Produtores de Discos) (ABPD), Paulo Rosa, piracy exists for two reasons:
"First, the technology is available; second, the lack of control over the informal market where illegal copies are openly sold."
Rosa said the government was fighting the problem with good laws. He said the idea of making CDs cheaper was very interesting.
Just last month, the president of the National Council to Combat Piracy and Intellectual Property Violations, Márcio Gonçalves, said that the contraband seized in Brazil between November, 2004, and November of this year amounts to US$ 87 million. According to Gonçalves, the value of the contraband seized in 2005 alone is 130% greater than in 2004.
During a talk at the Seminar on Piracy, Frauds, and Market Violations in Porto Alegre, in southern Brazil, he affirmed that "the main entryway for contraband is the Brazilian border with Paraguay, in Foz do Iguaçu, in the state of Paraná."
He added, however, that, after barriers were set up in the region, this type of activity diminished 60%.
The seminar was sponsored by the Rio Grande do Sul Civil Police Academy (Acadepol), in partnership with the National Council to Combat Piracy and Intellectual Property Violations, an organ created in November, 2004, following a recommendation made by the Chamber of Deputy’s Parliamentary Investigative Commission (CPI) on Piracy in its final report.
ABr