Algeria's anti-piracy campaign

• Author: Ali Chabane
• Position: Director, National Copyright Office (ONDA), Algeria
• Pages: 29-30

p. 29WIPO | MAGAZINE

An impressive haul of unauthorized copies

of CDs, DVDs, VC Ds and cassett es is a clear

indication t hat Algeria’s anti-pi racy strate gy

has teeth. W ith an estimat ed piracy rate

of around 60 perc ent, piracy is one of t he

main chal lenges facing A lgeria’s authors,

musicians, publi shers and producers.

a l ge r I a’ s

antI-pIracy

ca m pa Ign By Mr. Ali Chaban e,

Director, Natio nal Copyright

Oce (ONDA), Algeria

As part of a nation-wide anti-pir acy campaign, in early O ctober 2012, over a million

pirated CDs and DVDs were seized and des troyed by inspectors from Algeria’s

National Copyright Of ce (ONDA) at a public ceremony in Algiers. The event which

took place under the watchful eye of music an d lm celebrities as wel l as leading

government and law enforceme nt ofcials sent a cle ar message about th e govern-

ment’s strong commitment to tackling copyr ight piracy. Algeria introduced its anti-

piracy campaign to the Dece mber 2012 meeting of the WIPO Advisory Commit tee

on Enforcement (ACE).

STEP-WISE IMPLEMENTATION OF ANTI-PIRACY STRATEGY

This impressive haul of una uthorized copies is a cle ar indication that Alge ria’s anti-

piracy strategy has teeth and is beginn ing to take effect. “This strategy is an ap -

propriate response to the many dif ferent types of copyri ght infringement suf fered

by creators and artists,” explains Mr. Sami Bencheikh, Di rector General of ONDA.

“It encompasses a series of measures combining the suppression of counterfeiting

activities with awareness-raising among consumers.”

THE SCALE OF PIRACY, A COMPLEX CH ALLENGE

Piracy is one of the main challenges facing Algeria’s authors, musicians, publish-

ers and producers. Whi le difcult to quantif y, ONDA estimates that piracy r ates are

around 60 percent af fecting a wide range of creative content, especially music a nd

lms, pirated versions of which are availab le in multiple formats including CDs, VCDs,

DVDs and books.

Photo: ONDA, Alger ia

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