Blog
Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy
Photo: CTK Fotobanka (Czech Republic)
BySylvie FodorWhat do Interpol, Lego, Microsoft Office, Pirate Bay, Viagra, Vuitton and Wikileaks have in common?
This question brought over 800 delegates from more than 100 countries to Paris last week at the invitation of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The conference was organised under the patronage of Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the French Republic. Other important personalities as well as major trade organisations such as the World Custom Organisation (WCO) or INTERPOL were represented.
The presence of high ranking personalities and world organisations undoubtlessly shows that the fight against infringement of intellectual property rights has become a top priority and a worldwide concern.
The US Immigration & Custom Enforcement (ICE) divides counterfeited good in four categories: Pharmaceutics, Health & Safety, Electronics, Movies & Music.
Under these circumstances, one may regret that this last aspect of IPR, Copyright, was under-represented at the conference.
In many instances counterfeited good are linked to international criminality. Consumer safety is therefore the main driver of anti-counterfeiting policies. This is obvious in the case of pharmaceutics or children toys. In these cases, counterfeiting and piracy may hurt or kill people. Even a pirated software may damage computers. In contrast, copyright infringement will neither damage a machine nor kill anybody.
But why would a Vuitton bag, let say, deserve more attention than a pirated film?
The reason may be that, in the case of copyrighted content, the pirates, too often, are the consumers themselves. They are not killing anybody, hurting themselves or damaging their computer. They are hurting the creator but don't feel this way. In fact, they feel they have a right to do so! When in February 2011, the ICE seized infringing websites, bloggers accused them of infringing the freedom of speech!
Wikileak and Pirates Bay: même combat!
Ignorance leads consumers to buy fake but dangerous medecines. In copyright, this is not just ignorance. Confusion is the rule. Although we may be experiencing an anti-copyright wave (unfortunately at WIPO too), support exists. (As published on this website, even private on-line companies, such as Google, have started to understand that content online is valuable.)
Awareness raising and consumer education, more time, are necessary.
Photos, videos and outcome statement of the Global Congress available here
Comments
More News
Archive
Latest Blog Entries
Licenses for Europe
It is essential that CEPIC attends all of these meetings to be at the forefront of information regarding technological and legal advances. Knowing better their applications within the framework of the European Union means having a stronger position in defending the interests of CEPIC members. Read more
The photography industry landscape
The photography industry has gone through a revolution over the past 5-10 years as the introduction of digital cameras, smartphones, social media platforms, and the cloud have created massive opportunities and disruptions in the industry. Read more
fotofringe London 2013 – ‘the best yet’ – full event pictures and roundup
890 picture buyers registered in advance. 700 visitors throughout the day. Will Carleton from PhotoArchiveNews has given us permission to publish this impression about fotofringe London 2013. Read more
Licences for Europe
There were many passionate and insightful comments made at the second round of "Licenses For Europe" stakeholder meetings held in Brussels on 7th March 2013. Read more
Frictionless licensing - dream or reality?
The IPTC Spring Conference in Amsterdam Machine Readable Rights and the News Industry: Opportunities, Standards and Challenges showed that all media sectors in are looking at changes and improvements in the way they do business. People from news, publishing, photo and image libraries attended. Read more
When it’s time to say No
Images search engines have rolled out changes in image display. New features infringe copyright in some countries and dramatically affect website traffic and image sales everywhere. In Germany, trade body Freelens has been successful in forcing Yahoo Images to revert to its former display. Read more
Barcelona, Such a Beautiful Horizon
We asked Julieanne Eason - age fotostock Content Manager - to tell us a bit about Barcelona. She is a New Zealand national, who has been living in Barcelona for the past 8 years. Who better to give us an insight into Barcelona – the destination for the CEPIC Congress 2013? Read more
Google Images' new layout - how this impacts photographers and webmasters
Let me preface this blog post by saying that Google has been a very important Internet player, and that the Internet wouldn't be the same without their efforts and innovations. Read more
When does freedom of speech trump copyright?
Copyright is a property right and therefore a human right protected under Article 1 of the First Protocol of the European Convention on Human Rights. Is the right to property a more or less important card in the human rights pack than the Article 10 right to freedom of expression? Read more
Registration for CEPIC Congress 2013 Has Started!
We are delighted to confirm that Registration is now open for Congress 2013 which will take place in the wonderful city of Barcelona, the capital city of Catalonia, one of the most vibrant regions of Spain, from the 11th – 14th June. Read more