Source: The State of Maranhão - 10/12/2010

Members of the Public Prosecutor's Office, military police, municipal guards, employees of the Secretariat of Finance and the Institute of Criminalistics and other public agents working in the fight against piracy in São Luís participated yesterday in the first Training Seminar Against Piracy, held in the capital. Given the economic impacts of this type of crime, combating piracy has been a priority focus for local authorities and entities. Regularly, operations are carried out in the city to reduce the sale of irregular products.

According to José Osmar Alves, holder of the 9th Prosecutor's Office of the Tax and Economic Order, only this year R $ 500 million in tax evasion was accounted for in the capital because of the sale of pirated products. "From September to December of this year alone, 12 operations were carried out by the Public Ministry and partner institutions in São Luís, resulting in the seizure of more than R $ 15 million in pirated products," he said.

Also according to him, approximately one thousand slot machines were also seized in these operations, in addition to the arrest of seven Chinese who traded pirated products in the capital, who were referred to the Federal Police. José Osmar Alves said that added the years 2008 and 2009, the damage to municipal public coffers would reach R $ 1 billion.

Seminar - About 100 public agents learned more about software piracy, audiovisual works, cigarettes, counterfeiting of medicines and the contracting of brands, which is the misuse of recognized brands in pirated products. “Training is one of the actions to combat piracy already foreseen in the Cidade Livre de Pirataria project, which is part of the National Plan to Combat Piracy,” explained Ana Lúcia Gomes, executive secretary of the National Council to Combat Piracy (CNCP).

The consultant for the Brand Protection Group (BPG), Luiz Claudio Garé, passed on to the participants a series of technical and legal information about this illegal practice and with the objective of helping them to carry out operations to apprehend counterfeit products on the city streets. . “The piracy industry is increasingly fast and specialized. Products that have not yet been launched on the Brazilian market or that are not sold here can be found freely on street vendor stalls and the physical differences are almost imperceptible, which is why the growth of this type of trade ”, he commented.