Author: Vitor Geron

Source: Gazeta do Povo Online - Curitiba / PR - 10/09/2010

At a meeting held this Friday morning (10), at the Consumer Protection Prosecutor's Office in Curitiba, measures were discussed to put in place a national policy to combat piracy. Representatives of federal, state and municipal government bodies met with the President of the National Council for Combating Piracy of the Ministry of Justice, Rafael Favetti, and the Executive Secretary of the Council, Ana Lúcia Soares, to define the next actions that will be placed in practice in the city.

Favetti recalled that Curitiba was one of the first cities in the country to sign the Pirate Free City project, which has actions to combat piracy. "Today's meeting (Friday) was a first step in this work that will take place throughout Brazil and should represent a milestone in the fight against this practice", he says.

At the meeting it was decided that, in October, the city will host a course, taught by the Ministry of Justice, for the training of all project participants. "The idea is for workers linked to the issuing of permits to participate, in addition to the municipal and state secretariats, mainly security, Municipal Guard, civil, military, federal and road police and members of the Brazilian Intelligence Agency (Abin)" explains Favetti. Additional information about the course should be released next week by the Public Ministry of Paraná (MP-PR).

The course will have specialists from different areas who

and will help course participants to identify pirated products. According to Favetti, even with the reduction in piracy rates in the country, “it is necessary to put an end to that view that people who sell pirated products are poor people with no life prospects, because in our investigations it was proved that the majority are related to crime organized crime, human trafficking and slave labor ”.

One of the Council's main concerns is with regard to pirated drugs that are mainly consumed by people with less financial resources and can cause serious damage to health, according to Favetti. "Although medicine is the biggest concern, we intend to work on all fronts, including encouraging the consumption of legalized products so that the citizen feels dignity when making a purchase".

The seminar that will take place in Curitiba has already taken place in Brasília and should also be held in other cities such as São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Ribeirão Preto (SP). With the training of those involved in the project, the expectation is that there will be an exchange of information between security agencies to curb the action of groups that sell pirated products in Brazil.