Fighting Piracy

The scale of copyright and related rights violations in Poland has reached an alarming level. Each year, the police seize almost 1 million pirated CDs containing music, films and computer software. The greatest losers of copyright violations are creators, performers and record labels. The decreasing profitability of legal companies leads to reduced income for the state tax budget.

In order to aid the fight against piracy for public authorities, an inter-ministerial team for the prevention of copyright violation has developed a "Strategy for the protection of intellectual property in Poland." Minister of Culture Waldemar Dąbrowski, the head of the team, says it is important for culture and the economy to efficiently protect rights to intellectual property. "The attitude towards protection of intellectual property is one of the indicators of a given country's civilizational advancement," Dąbrowski said at a press conference. "If Poland wants to develop a modern economy and promote and protect its culture in the European Union and take an important role in that organization, it has to significantly reduce the level of copyright violations."

As part of the new strategy, a central Task Force will be appointed, consisting of representatives of the police, border guards, customs services and the prosecutor's office. City patrol forces will be involved in fighting piracy as well. There will also be a special computer system to facilitate identification of pirates.

Illegally produced CDs are sold in numerous outlets and therefore reducing illegal CD sales requires plenty of police officers. The illegal trade is very well-organized. It is likely that organized criminal groups handle the smuggling, production and distribution of pirated goods. CDs are distributed among consumers similarly to drugs-through a network of dealers selling pirated copies to individual buyers.

A very special case is Jarmark Europa at the Dziesięciolecia Stadium in Warsaw, a kind of wholesale market center. This is the largest market for pirated CDs, DVDs, videotapes and computer software in Poland. Problems related to intellectual property rights violations in Poland have for years been the subject of criticism from the European Commission and the United States administration. "Our foreign partners can see the way the market at Dziesięciolecia Stadium functions today and unfortunately, this tarnishes our image," Dąbrowski said.

A key element in limiting illegal CD sales is to tighten the eastern border of Poland and train various services in fighting piracy. According to police data, imported counterfeit media make up 90 percent of illegal materials brought to the Polish market. Many pirate manufactures are located in Ukraine and Russia as well as the Czech Republic and the Far East. Hopefully, improving control of Poland's eastern border-related to EU accession-will contribute to better detection of smuggled goods.