Piracy: Government warns of risk of measure not having effect
Source: Jornal do Senado, 01/06/2009
The executive secretary of the National Council for Combating Piracy (CNCP) of the Ministry of Justice, André Luiz Barcellos, warned that tax exemption or reduction does not always lead to cheaper products. In the case of computers, Barcellos recalled during the seminar in the EC, the tax reduction promoted by the so-called MP do Bem (2005) worked and sales of legalized products grew 20% per year. But tax immunity on books has not reduced prices or helped to popularize reading in the country.
In the same vein, the executive director of the Brazilian Institute of Ethics in Competition, Patrícia Blanco, argued that the high tax burden cannot be accepted as a justification for illegal trade by citizens. The lawyer Dalton Cesar Miranda asked to be careful with what he called “piracy taxation”, that is, with initiatives to legalize fairs where imported products of dubious origin are sold. For the representative of the Brazilian Intellectual Property Association, José Henrique Werner, combating the entry of illegal products is very difficult in Brazil, and piracy benefits from this “impunity”.
The representative of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Dorian Mazurkevich, highlighted the negative consequences of piracy on employment, crime and the environment.