Vitória joins the Free Piracy City Program

By ETCO
17/01/2013

The fight against piracy in the country gained important reinforcement with the signing of the agreement between the city of Vitória, ES, and the National Council for Combating Piracy and Intellectual Property Offenses (CNCP) of the Ministry of Justice. Under the agreement, the capital of Espírito Santo becomes the 9th municipality in the program, which is coordinated by ETCO.

The act took place during an event in celebration of the National Day to Combat Piracy - December 3 - held at the headquarters of the Ministry of Justice, in Brasília. The city of Vitória was represented by the municipal secretary of Urban Security, Alcemir Pantaleão Sobrinho. Through the CNCP, the president of the Council, Márcia Pelegrini, signed the agreement. The program now has six state capitals - São Paulo, Curitiba, Belo Horizonte, Rio de Janeiro, Cuiabá and Vitória - in addition to Brasília (DF) and the municipalities of Várzea Grande (MT) and Osasco (SP).

At the opening of the event, the Minister of Justice, José Eduardo Cardozo, emphasized the need to face the crime of piracy. “The fight against piracy belongs to society and the Brazilian State. Piracy is connected to organized crime, which is why we are recognizing entities that develop actions in this area. This is an important role, which can encourage other initiatives, ”said the minister.

With the emphasis on the need to raise society's awareness of the importance of buying original products in order not to feed organized crime, the event also featured a seminar consisting of four lectures. The chief executive of ETCO, Roberto Abdenur, spoke about the progress of the Cidade Livre de Pirataria project and recalled that the CNCP will complete 10 years in 2014. “Although there has been a lot of progress in this period, there are still many challenges ahead. It is always worth remembering that the practice of piracy affects the country's image and inhibits foreign investments, ”said Abdenur.

In his lecture, the Municipal Secretary of Urban Security of São Paulo, Edson Ortega, showed data on the experience of the Secretariat of Urban Security of the Municipality of São Paulo in combating piracy. Between December 2010 and October 2012, 72 million goods were seized in the capital, which is equivalent to R $ 2,5 billion. São Paulo was the first municipality to join the Cidade Livre de Pirataria program.

The executive chairman of the National Forum Against Piracy and Illegality (FNCP), Edson Luiz Vismona, presented the theme “Panorama of Piracy and Offenses against Intellectual Property today”.

At the end of the seminar, the executive secretary of the CNCP, Rodolfo Tamanaha, presented the initial outline of the diagnosis of the National Plan to Combat Piracy. Lawyer, master of the University of Brasilia, Tamanaha stressed the need to discourage society from consuming pirated products. "We don't want to stigmatize the consumer, but we need to understand the barriers to accessing consumption," he warned.