Entity joins the CNPC – National Council to Combat Piracy
ABES legal director, Manoel Antonio dos Santos, and executive director, Anselmo Gentile, were in Brasília to fulfill several commitments representing the entity, among them, the inauguration ceremony of new members of the National Council to Combat Piracy (CNCP) , an agency linked to the Ministry of Justice, on March 18. The entity, which already acted as a collaborator, became a member of the board with voting rights.
Rodrigo Paiva, coordinator of the ABES Intellectual Property Defense Committee, will be the entity's titular representative on the board, and Antônio Eduardo Mendes da Silva, who is a member of the same committee, will be the alternate. As a member of CNCP, the entity will continue with its work of representing the Brazilian software industry, defending copyright and intellectual property laws.
Last year, the Legal Entrepreneur campaign, an initiative created by ABES, received the National Prize for Combating Piracy, in the Economic Axis category, for its work to raise awareness of the use of original software in all segments of the Brazilian economy. “We will continue with our efforts to reduce the use of illegal software, supporting the council in the creation of guidelines that guarantee an environment of fair competition in the country”, comments the legal director.
Meetings with parliamentarians
ABES representatives also met with deputy Alceu Moreira (PMDB), to reinforce the entity's support for Bill 357/2011, reported by the legislator. The project aims to increase the penalties imposed for crimes against industrial property, as they are criminal conducts that affect very important economic activities for the country.
"Although the final object of the PL are trademarks, industrial designs and patents, the entity's support was in the sense that the concept can be extended to the area of intellectual property, in the field of copyright that is directly linked to the software", he explains. Dr. Manuel Santos.
Another important meeting was with deputy Sandro Alex (PPS), rapporteur of Bill 3,684/2004, which has the support of the entity. The project provides for the creation of credit incentives for companies that work in the development of computer programs and proposes that credit lines maintained by federal financial institutions offer differentiated interest for these projects.
The original text of the proposal, however, restricted the benefit only to companies that develop free software, excluding the vast majority of corporations that work with other models. The report presented by deputy Sandro Alex eliminates this restriction, guaranteeing that all companies that develop computer programs in the country will be able to access these benefits. “ABES guaranteed its support for the parliamentary initiative, as it will have important effects on the entire software sector in Brazil, regardless of the business model or platform adopted”, says the legal director.
ABES representatives visited Deputy Ricardo Tripoli (PSDB), recently sworn in as the Chamber of Deputies Science, Technology, Communication and Informatics Committee. In addition to presenting the entity, the directors provided a quick overview of the software sector in Brazil and made the entity available to parliamentarians to contribute and discuss topics of interest to the Commission.
“We leave our legal board at the disposal of the deputies with whom we meet. We want to make available the entity's legal knowledge on these topics, offer data on the sector and make the interconnection of these parliamentarians with other entities in the information technology sector", concludes Santos.
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