Source: Correio Braziliense - DF - BRAZIL - 24/08/2009

Population with higher income and higher level of education proportionally leads the demand for pirated products Interpol considered the crime of the century, for moving R $ 520 billion dollars a year in the world, almost R $ 200 billion more than drug trafficking, piracy it is fed in Brazil by the most affluent and highly educated population. Forty-three percent of class A and B people admit to buying a counterfeit product in the last month. The index, in the public D and E, drops to 22%. The main advantage, in the evaluation of consumers, is the price. Despite the evidence, half of the population does not believe that the activity is linked to organized crime. The information is contained in a study commissioned by the Millennium Institute, a non-profit organization focused on human development, on the Brazilian habit in relation to piracy.

The survey - which heard 70 people from the country's five regions in 10 cities, covering all metropolitan areas - pointed out that four out of 25 Brazilians buy pirated items. The age group that consumes the most ranges from 44 to XNUMX years. Paulo Uebel, executive director of the Millennium Institute, explains the objective of the research. “We made an equal distribution between income, sex, age group and regions, with a representative sample, in order to have a faithful portrait of the habit of people who purchase counterfeit articles. With this profile, we will be able to collaborate with the elaboration of public policies ”, highlights Uebel. The entity intends to send the information, still unpublished, to authorities working in the fight against piracy.

Uebel points out that it is difficult to know exactly why classes A and B are the most active financiers of piracy. "Or because people have the most money to spend or even because they are unaware of the consequences," he says. Luiz Paulo Barreto, executive secretary of the Ministry of Justice and president of the National Council to Combat Piracy. He explains that while the less affluent consumer consumes DVDs, among other cheap items, the rich target the expensive ones. "There is a counterfeit watch for R $ 400. In addition to other products, such as medicines and medical equipment," he says. As for the information that 50% of the population does not believe in the link between piracy and organized crime, Barreto is emphatic. “Our investigations point to this network as an arm of international mafias, there is no doubt”, he says.

Attractive

Carlos * knows that his business is problematic. “I am aware that I am not sure. But with 49 years old, five children, where am I going to get a job to earn what I earn here? ”, Asks the street vendor who sells about 700 pirated DVDs every week. Good-naturedly, he says that despite the police raids, which have already taken him twice to the police station, he will not quit his job. “Today there are even women and men who are pirates. They are filled with silicone, plastic. The boys, all pumped ”, amuses himself. For the civil servant César Viana, who left Carlos' stand with four pirate films, the biggest attraction is the price. "If I could buy the original, of course I would prefer it", he highlights.

Tax cuts, according to a study by the Millennium Institute, are the greatest solution to combat piracy, much more than education, according to the interviewees. Barreto, however, does not believe much in the premise. “Of course, the lower price encourages the sale of the original, as happened with the computer in Brazil. But there are products, such as CD and DVD, that even if we zero the tax, we would lose in competition with the pirate, whose only expense is a media, while the original remunerates a long productive chain ”, he says. The North, Center-West and South appear in the survey as the regions where most counterfeit articles are consumed.