Roberto Abdenur
Executive President of the Brazilian Institute of Competition Ethics (ETCO)
Investing in legality is worth it. This statement is not always well understood in an economy where examples of unfair competition proliferate. The numbers, however, help to make everyone aware that the saying goes well: cheap is expensive.
The numbers, in this case, are from the study “Competitive Advantage: The Economic Impact of Licensed Software”, carried out by BSA I The Software Alliance, the international association of the IT industry, together with INSEAD, one of the most important business schools of the world.
Based on data from 95 countries, the study published in May confirms that the use of licensed software stimulates the economy by providing a greater return on investment than the pirated product. The reason is simple: legitimate products improve the operational efficiency of companies. The study says that a 1% increase in the volume of licensed software in each country would inject US$ 73 billion into the global economy, while the pirate would bring in US$ 20 billion.
In order to increase the use of licensed software, it is necessary to provide authorities with the means to combat piracy. Adequate laws, effective punishments, efficient inspection and, above all, a population aware of the risks of pirated products. This is the recipe for fighting piracy, a crime of tax evasion that threatens not only the area of technology, but all activities in the economy.
The practice of piracy is one of the most harmful forms of unfair competition, because, by subverting the rules of intellectual property to obtain illicit commercial advantages, it discourages free competition and inhibits investments in research and technology for the development of new products.
Modern piracy, that is, the violation of industrial and intellectual property rights, is considered the crime of the 21st century. According to scholars' estimates, this crime currently moves more resources than drug trafficking and is financed by international smuggling networks. and criminality. According to the BSA, the global economy fails to collect more than US$ 13 billion in taxes because of piracy.
Difficult to repress, including the difficulty of identifying those responsible, piracy is easy to verify. The first clue is the absence of an invoice. It doesn't take a large company structure to suspect the “impure” origin of a product if there is no corresponding invoice. Any consumer deducts this immediately.
Despite this, many citizens purchase pirated products because they are not aware of the risks they run. One of the risks is the lack of a guarantee or quality standard. No consumer protection laws can apply if there are problems with a pirated product purchased. Software, clothes, shoes, accessories, household items, books, CDs and DVDs are among the most pirated. Not to mention medication, a heinous crime, as it is a direct threat to public health.
Organized civil society groups that are aware of the scale of the problem take initiatives to combat it. Laws are a basic mechanism in this endeavor, as the Parliamentary Front to Combat Piracy demonstrates.
In the case of medicines, for example, there is a Bill awaiting a vote in the Chamber of Deputies. PLS 162/2011, approved in the Senate in June, establishes the National Policy to Combat Piracy of Products Subject to Sanitary Surveillance. The project is focused on integrating government actions to combat piracy of products that must pass through the scrutiny of the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa). The PLS provides incentives for the training of specialized professionals and the education of producers, suppliers and consumers regarding their rights and duties.
In addition, Anvisa presented a resolution on October 15 for the tracking model for medicines in circulation in the country. Established by law in 2009, traceability can finally reach a solution with the adoption of a two-dimensional code similar to a bar, but with more information, which will allow tracking the path taken by the product from the laboratory to the patient.
Another initiative, with excellent results, is the Piracy-Free City Program, run by the Ministry of Justice's National Council to Combat Piracy and Crimes against Intellectual Property (CNCP/MJ). The program, which municipalizes the fight against this crime and is managed by ETCO, is already in effect in ten cities: São Paulo, Curitiba, Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Osasco, Rio de Janeiro, Vitória, Salvador, Manaus and Cuiabá. The goal is for it to be adopted by all the host cities of the 2014 World Cup.
The National Council for Combating Piracy will be ten years old in 2014. Its performance has resulted in a lot of progress in the fight against this crime and its harmful effects. But there is still a long way to go. It is essential that it be followed, because, in addition to everything else, piracy affects the country's image and foreign investments. It is worth investing in legality.
Executive President of the Brazilian Institute of Competition Ethics (ETCO)
Investing in legality is worth it. This statement is not always well understood in an economy where examples of unfair competition proliferate. The numbers, however, help to make everyone aware that the saying goes well: cheap is expensive.
The numbers, in this case, are from the study “Competitive Advantage: The Economic Impact of Licensed Software”, carried out by BSA I The Software Alliance, the international association of the IT industry, together with INSEAD, one of the most important business schools of the world.
Based on data from 95 countries, the study published in May confirms that the use of licensed software stimulates the economy by providing a greater return on investment than the pirated product. The reason is simple: legitimate products improve the operational efficiency of companies. The study says that a 1% increase in the volume of licensed software in each country would inject US$ 73 billion into the global economy, while the pirate would bring in US$ 20 billion.
In order to increase the use of licensed software, it is necessary to provide authorities with the means to combat piracy. Adequate laws, effective punishments, efficient inspection and, above all, a population aware of the risks of pirated products. This is the recipe for fighting piracy, a crime of tax evasion that threatens not only the area of technology, but all activities in the economy.
The practice of piracy is one of the most harmful forms of unfair competition, because, by subverting the rules of intellectual property to obtain illicit commercial advantages, it discourages free competition and inhibits investments in research and technology for the development of new products.
Modern piracy, that is, the violation of industrial and intellectual property rights, is considered the crime of the 21st century. According to scholars' estimates, this crime currently moves more resources than drug trafficking and is financed by international smuggling networks. and criminality. According to the BSA, the global economy fails to collect more than US$ 13 billion in taxes because of piracy.
Difficult to repress, including the difficulty of identifying those responsible, piracy is easy to verify. The first clue is the absence of an invoice. It doesn't take a large company structure to suspect the “impure” origin of a product if there is no corresponding invoice. Any consumer deducts this immediately.
Despite this, many citizens purchase pirated products because they are not aware of the risks they run. One of the risks is the lack of a guarantee or quality standard. No consumer protection laws can apply if there are problems with a pirated product purchased. Software, clothes, shoes, accessories, household items, books, CDs and DVDs are among the most pirated. Not to mention medication, a heinous crime, as it is a direct threat to public health.
Organized civil society groups that are aware of the scale of the problem take initiatives to combat it. Laws are a basic mechanism in this endeavor, as the Parliamentary Front to Combat Piracy demonstrates.
In the case of medicines, for example, there is a Bill awaiting a vote in the Chamber of Deputies. PLS 162/2011, approved in the Senate in June, establishes the National Policy to Combat Piracy of Products Subject to Sanitary Surveillance. The project is focused on integrating government actions to combat piracy of products that must pass through the scrutiny of the National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa). The PLS provides incentives for the training of specialized professionals and the education of producers, suppliers and consumers regarding their rights and duties.
In addition, Anvisa presented a resolution on October 15 for the tracking model for medicines in circulation in the country. Established by law in 2009, traceability can finally reach a solution with the adoption of a two-dimensional code similar to a bar, but with more information, which will allow tracking the path taken by the product from the laboratory to the patient.
Another initiative, with excellent results, is the Piracy-Free City Program, run by the Ministry of Justice's National Council to Combat Piracy and Crimes against Intellectual Property (CNCP/MJ). The program, which municipalizes the fight against this crime and is managed by ETCO, is already in effect in ten cities: São Paulo, Curitiba, Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Osasco, Rio de Janeiro, Vitória, Salvador, Manaus and Cuiabá. The goal is for it to be adopted by all the host cities of the 2014 World Cup.
The National Council for Combating Piracy will be ten years old in 2014. Its performance has resulted in a lot of progress in the fight against this crime and its harmful effects. But there is still a long way to go. It is essential that it be followed, because, in addition to everything else, piracy affects the country's image and foreign investments. It is worth investing in legality.
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