Source: O Globo Online, 28/05/2009

BRASÍLIA - The Ministry of Justice announced on Thursday new actions to combat piracy in Brazil, which will be implemented until 2012. There will be 23 actions and one of the main objectives will be to try to convince the consumer that buying a pirated product stimulates organized crime, it harms public accounts and can cause health problems. The brand “Original Brazil - Buy this attitude” will also be launched, which will be displayed in packaging, stores, shopping centers and fairs, for example, to differentiate the original product from the counterfeit. A label with the new brand may be placed on products to draw consumer attention to the issue of piracy. According to the Ministry of Justice, the idea is to enhance the formal industry, which pays taxes and creates jobs.

According to Justice Minister Tarso Genro, who participated in the ceremony wearing a T-shirt with the new brand, the proposal is to show the citizen that the purchase of pirated products can turn against the consumer himself.

- Combating this type of crime will not have results if we do not have a deep awareness of society. The consumer has to understand that when he buys a pirated product he is buying a product against him. It is a bad product, which pays no taxes, which reduces tax revenues and reduces formal employment. It encourages crime and illegality. The quality of the pirated product is always inferior and the person is being tricked.

Some measures involve partnerships with states and municipalities, such as Cidade Livre de Pirataria. According to the president of the Etco Institute, André Franco Montoro Filho, partnerships will be negotiated with the mayors of cities to attack places, warehouses and other places where counterfeit products exist and are sold