judicial

Piracy penalty increased

LA PRENSA

pirate’s booty: An updated anti-piracy law, passed in May, stiffens penalties for reproducing intellectual property, such as music albums and movies.1082127

It doesn’t take special intelligence to know that Panama’s streets are overrun with pirates. No, they aren’t the 15th century Henry Morgan-type of pirate from the country’s illustrious past, but the “buhoneros” brazenly peddling counterfeit CDs and DVDs on virtually every street corner, pedestrian overpass and shopping center. And they know exactly what will tempt the potential customer, from the latest Hollywood blockbuster to the must-have song of the moment.

Not surprisingly, the prices vary depending on the desirability and availability of the stolen goods, but prices have risen lately to match the quality of the movies and music, which continues to improve radically thanks to technology.

Panama, unlike many countries in the region, has a public prosecutor that specializes in intellectual property crimes. His name is Ramiro Esquivel Morales, and he’s cracking down on counterfeiters in the country with the support of a stiffer anti-pirating law that was approved earlier this year.

In his investigations, Morales has pinpointed six hotspots around the capital frequented by pirated goods dealers. Those locations include the Xtra Supermarket in San Miguelito, El Fuerte in the Gran Terminal in Albrook and the intersection nearest the El Dorado shopping center, in Calidonia.

Although the task of downloading, or “ripping,” a movie or music album, can be executed from nearly any household computer, Morales said there are “laboratories” where the movies, music and other goods are illegally copied in mass quantity and distributed all over the capital city. Generally, the bulk of the pirated merchandise made in town is sent to be sold in western Panama or exported to Costa Rica, where laws governing piracy are laxer.

Morales made it clear that in Panama, “buying and selling pirated goods is a crime,” but, like many prohibited activities, the potential profits outweigh the risk of punishment for many property pirates.

For example, taking into consideration that the average CD burner can copy a movie in 12 minutes, a counterfeiter could produce an average of 20 films per day and about 800 movies per month. At a price of $10 to $15 each, a diligent pirate could rake in between $8,000 and $12,000 a month.

As the profits have risen, so has the severity of the punishment for violators. For crimes involving intellectual property theft, a law passed May 23 increased the potential prison sentence from four to six years, and raised the minimum fine to $5,000, plus the payment of royalties.