Country Focus - Combating Piracy: Brazil Fights Back

Strategy and tactics

The National Plan for Combating Piracy includes 99 guidelines for short, medium and long-term action. The Council regularly assesses work in progress, to identify what is working and what is not, to amend the guidelines accordingly.

Effective communication is essential to ensure that the Council’s strategy is understood by all sectors of society and to maximize its impact. Communication is two way, so that any interested parties can voice their opinions in workshops, meetings and through Internet and telephone channels. Cliquedenúncia (which translates roughly as -click ’n tell-) is an open line for members of the public to file complaints, transmit information on pirated goods or new methods of counterfeiting, report new counterfeit sales outlets, etc.

Intelligence-led enforcement

Under the heading of repressive action, the National Plan defines the strategy of broadening and coordinating intelligence work within all the government departments involved in combating piracy, counterfeiting and other IP-related crime. The government has invested significant resources in this area, and the resulting actions receive high profile media attention.

The first priority was to shut down entry points of counterfeit goods into the country by stepping up controls at strategic border points, such as the Ponte da Amizade between Brazil and Paraguay. This alone led to the seizure of 33 million illegal CDs and DVDs in 2005, almost double the amount seized in 2004. At the seaport of Santos in Sao Paulo more than 120 containers of illegal merchandise were impounded. In another operation, a six months investigation led to the seizure of 204 million counterfeited surgical gloves, which contravened health and safety standards. The perpetrators keep becoming more creative in finding new ways to circumvent controls.

Successful efforts to intensify repressive measures at points of sale included Operation Sagitarius carried out at popular retail outlets for cheap goods in São Paulo, Belo Horizonte, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro and Brasilia.

Such headline-grabbing seizures of illegal goods represented months of painstaking investigation and joint...