Published in the Diário de São Paulo - 03/12/2004

With the idea of ​​serving as a center to articulate so many entities and with so many different interests, Codepin may even have served as an inspiration to the National Council for Piracy and Offenses against Intellectual Property, which officially started its activities last week. In addition, there is no other state in the country with a similar structure. So it is very difficult to say this, but come on: point for Governor Rosinha Matheus.

? The state of Rio had to have such a commission many years ago, to think more broadly about the problem of piracy ?, says Luiz Carlos Prestes Filho, superintendent of culture economics at the Secretariat for Economic Development, which is ahead of Codepin . ? It is essential that we have an articulated agenda. Even with disputes, long-term action planning is possible.

Prestes Filho explains that the main concern of the commission, for now, is to try to convince the Senate that the debate on a new copyright law has to be open to various sectors of the economy. Codepin understands that the discussion about changes in the law cannot be restricted to members of the Senate because they may interfere in private segments, with the risk of disrespecting international agreements to which Brazil is a signatory.

? A change in the law without consulting the entities that will suffer from the changes may be an invasion in the sphere of administration of the Central Collection and Distribution Office (Ecad), for example, which is not a public agency.

The commission's first victory, commemorates the superintendent, is the federal government's commitment to maintaining the National Institute of Industrial Property (Inpi) in the state of Rio. The transfer of Inpi to Brasília had been under consideration for years and has already been commented on here in the column. Its change would make it difficult to combat crimes related to intellectual property. Last month, however, the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade assured Codepin that the institute will remain where it has always been. Still in gestation by Codepin is the idea of ​​including the study of intellectual property in police academies. Codepin is also fighting for more material and human resources, mainly for the police station to combat piracy. It wants to adopt constant procedures to combat the sale of illicit products.