Source: Jornal do Senado, 01/06/2009

Piracy overcame drug trafficking and became the most profitable illicit business in the world, with revenues of $ 522 billion last year, Interpol estimated. Some sectors are hardest hit. According to the report on commercial piracy published in 2005 by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), one in three musical records sold in the world is a pirate, an illegal music market that reaches US $ 4,6 billion.

In Brazil, research by the Ministry of Justice and the University of Campinas (Unicamp) has already revealed that piracy prevents the emergence of 2 million formal jobs per year and that R $ 30 billion in taxes are no longer collected. But the National Forum Against Piracy and Illegality (FNCP) calculates three times as much, or twice what the government collected with the defunct CPMF.

A study released last year by the Akatu Institute, in partnership with Microsoft, revealed that Brazilian consumers know what they are buying, that the activity harms trade and industry, artists and authors, and causes tax and job evasion . They even admit to knowing that piracy is a crime and that it is associated with organized crime.