Source: Ministry of Justice - DF - 01/12/2009

Brasília, 1/12/2009 (MJ) - The National Council for Combating Piracy (CNCP), an organ of the Ministry of Justice, launched on Tuesday (1st), in São Paulo and in Curitiba, the program “Cidade Livre de Piracy and Illegal Trade ”. As a result of a partnership with the Brazilian Institute of Ethics in Competition (ETCO), the project will also be implemented in Brasília, Rio de Janeiro and Ribeirão Preto, cities that are already developing local anti-piracy actions.

 
The program is the first partnership between the Union and municipalities and integrates the 23 actions of the new National Plan to Combat Piracy. Today, the Technical and Operational Cooperation Terms were signed between the Ministry of Justice and the city halls of São Paulo and Curitiba. The objective is, based on the initiatives proposed in the new plan, to consolidate a national movement around the fight against piracy and crimes against intellectual property.

At the solemnity of signing the agreement in São Paulo, the mayor of São Paulo, Gilberto Kassab, highlighted the economic losses resulting from piracy. “Piracy is at the service of organized crime and causes the loss of new jobs because it is at the service of illegal trade. That is why we have to have a stronger position to fight this type of crime ”, he said.

 
The actions of the Free City of Piracy and Illegal Trade program are divided into three priority areas: repressive, educational and economic. Repressive actions on the country's borders make it difficult for counterfeit products to enter the Brazilian market, but they are not enough to end marketing. Therefore, the focus of the project is to act directly on the consumption of these products.

For the mayor of Curitiba, Beto Richa, the crime of piracy has to be combated by the government. “It is the duty of every government official to combat this type of crime because it has taken jobs out of our population. It is also necessary to make the population aware that this practice damages the economy and the growth of the city ”.

The initiative also provides incentives to city halls for the repression of piracy crimes and the implementation of the Fair Legal project, which proposes the regularization of the main fairs so that only original products are offered to the community. “We don't want to attack street vendors. We want to get them to sell legal merchandise, which will result in the inhibition of piracy ”, highlights the executive secretary of the Ministry of Justice and president of the CNCP, Luiz Paulo Barreto.

 
Since the creation of the Council in 2004, the greatest emphasis on combating crime has been given to primary areas (ports, airports, borders, customs), since Brazil is not considered a producer country, but a consumer of piracy. "However, the repressive effort and educational and economic measures need to be taken to Brazilian municipalities," says Barreto.

 
In addition to a stricter inspection of commerce in general, the project will also have an educational character. The idea is to assist in the training of educators who will pass on information on combating piracy to students in municipal schools.

 
ETCO President André Montoro believes that the project will be a reference for all cities. “We will analyze which experiences will work and, based on the practice of these cities, a list of procedures will be organized that will serve as a basis for extending the project to other municipalities”, comments Montoro. The objective, according to him, is to take Cidade Livre de Pirataria to the 300 most populous municipalities in the country.

 
Since the creation of the CNCP, Brazil has been recording records of seizures of fake products, arrests and investigations and prosecutions against counterfeiters, as a result of the integrated action involving the Federal Revenue Service, the Federal Police and the Federal Highway Police, at the ports. , airports and borders.