Lower price leads Paulistano to opt for pirated product
By Paula Alface, Diário de S. Paulo - 10/06/2005
About 70% of Paulistanos who bought pirated products in the past 12 months knew they were taking a counterfeit home. This was one of the main findings of a survey conducted by Ibope in the city of São Paulo and released yesterday by the Dannemann Siemsen Institute for Intellectual Property Studies. The institute heard 602 people, from all social classes, between April 7 and 13 of this year. The margin of error is 3,9 percentage points more or less. The purpose of the survey was to get to know better who is the consumer of piracy in the largest center of trade and distribution of copies and contraband across the country. And in the first question came the surprise: 60% of the people interviewed said they had already bought an illegal product at least once. ? In the first question of the research we already found an alarming data ?, commented Silvia Cervellini, coordinator of the research.
The main motivation for consumption is savings in the pocket. Most consumers expect to save more than half the original price when purchasing a copy. And that goes for all social classes. Class A, B, C, D and E consumers were heard and in all of them consumption exists. The only difference is the type of product. Among the richest, electronic games and pirated toys are the bestsellers. Among the poorest, the preference is for clothes and shoes. ? It is what we call homogeneous consumption ?, explained the study coordinator.
10 sectors
The survey concentrated the data in 10 sectors: clothing, toys, sneakers, watches, glasses, bags, pens, perfumes, electronic games and stationery. When asked about the consumption of these products in the last 12 months, consumers responded that they had purchased an average of 10 units of pirated stationery in the last 12 months, the highest incidence. Second place went to electronic games, with nine units, and third place to clothes, with eight units.
The savings are not always so significant. For stationery products, for example, the average expense is R $ 5,60. Very different from the financial gain obtained with the purchase of sneakers, for example, a sector in which the average cost of counterfeiting is R $ 42,03 and the price of the originals varies between R $ 200 and R $ 300. If in the pocket of buyer, the advantages are not always great, in public coffers and in companies' cash, the effect is often devastating. Projections made by American Chamber of Commerce, an entity that represents North American multinationals in the country, shows that, if instead of illegal products, Paulistanos consumed the originals, the São Paulo industry would earn R $ 1,8 billion more and the Union, the State and would the City Hall collect R $ 720 million more in taxes? figures include consumption of the 10 categories of products cited. ? Showing this to the population is the best way to reverse this situation ?, believes Marcus Macedo, Warner representative in Brazil.
Learn more
The IRS and civil society entities also discussed piracy and its impacts yesterday, at a seminar held in Foz do Iguaçu. The event focused on discussing the social impacts that counterfeiting has on the economy of the city of Paraná.
A survey by Sérgio Santos, regional delegate of the National Union of Technicians of the Federal Revenue (Sindireceita), found that 61 thousand economically active people in the city have contraband and counterfeiting as a source of income. Formal work is the livelihood of 41 thousand people from Foz do Iguaçu.
? About 60% of our economy is sustained by counterfeiting. The fight is being done, but now we need to study ways to minimize this impact for the population ?, explains Sérgio.
He warns that the same should begin to be discussed in the city of São Paulo, the largest center for trade and distribution of copied articles. ? The social impact is enormous and it is necessary to look for ways out ?, warns the Federal Revenue technician.
See also:
