With the signing of the agreement, eight municipalities have already joined the Ministry of Justice program, whose management is under the responsibility of ETCO. Goal is to reach all host cities of the 2014 World Cup

Salvador, in Bahia, will be the eighth Brazilian municipality to be part of the Cidade Livre de Piracy Program, of the National Council for Combating Piracy and Intellectual Property Offenses of the Ministry of Justice (CNCP / MJ). The program is managed by the Brazilian Institute of Ethics in Competition (ETCO) and aims to municipalize the fight against illegal trade.

The cooperation agreement will be signed tomorrow, July 12, at 11 am, at the Chamber of Shopkeepers (CDL) of Salvador. The mayor of the Bahian capital, Antônio Carlos Magalhães Neto, will sign the agreement, in a ceremony that will also be attended by the President of the CNCP, Flavio Crocce Caetano, the Executive Secretary of the CNCP, Rodolfo Tamanaha, and the ETCO representative, Márcio Gonçalves.

Started in 2010 and already implemented in São Paulo, Curitiba, Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Osasco, Rio de Janeiro and Vitória, the program aims to municipalize the fight against illegal trade in products, so that the participating cities actively take on the fight against piracy, developing actions in conjunction with municipal, state and federal institutions, as well as representatives of civil society. Thus, all anti-piracy measures, such as inspection, product seizure operations and awareness campaigns, among others, are now being worked on in an integrated manner and coordinated by the city hall, which guarantees more efficiency and better results.

As a program manager since 2009, ETCO's goal is to expand the program's membership in the country's main municipalities. This year, the priority is the host cities for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, as is the case in Salvador, which will have six games played at the Fonte Nova Arena.

“The successful experience of São Paulo, the first municipality to be part of the program, shows that it is possible to succeed in combating piracy, placing the issue above political interests”, says ETCO Executive President, Roberto Abdenur. According to him, “the practice of piracy is one of the most harmful forms of unfair competition, since, by subverting the rules of intellectual property to obtain illicit commercial advantages, the piracy 'industry' discourages free competition and inhibits investments in research and technology for Development of new products".

In turn, the President of the CNCP, Flavio Crocce Caetano, states that “the partnership established with the municipalities aims to debate and propose actions that take into account the local particularities of each municipality, making public policies to combat piracy more effective. ”. In the same vein, Rodolfo Tamanaha, Executive Secretary of CNCP, asserts that the “Piracy-Free City Project encourages local actors, led by the respective city hall, to present the main problems related to piracy, which serve to support coping actions” .

“The City of Salvador supports the initiative and will intensify, through the Public Order Secretariat, the fight against piracy. We must develop all legal means to protect intellectual property and prevent writers, singers and composers, other artists and manufacturers of electronic products, for example, from having their work pirated by people who do not contribute to the development of Brazil ”, says the mayor of Salvador, Antônio Carlos Magalhães Neto.