Mumbai: In the first half of 2008, the numbers of pirate products seized in the South of Brazil were considerable. Statistics show that from January to June of 2008, 55.5 per cent of the total number of pirate media seized throughout Brazil was in this region.

These figures show the effect of piracy on the video industry, since the blank DVDs (used to make copies of films) and already copied works totalled over seven million, almost five times the 2007 total of 1.3 million.

According to the Motion Picture Association’s regional antipiracy director, Márcio Gonçalves, these numbers reflect the results of policing and Receita Federal (Brazilian IRS) activities on the Paraguayan border, a major entry point for illegal products. In the region comprising the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, and Paraná alone, more than 400 antipiracy operations were carried out, resulting in the seizure of over 12 million CDs and DVDs, of 21.8 million removed from circulation across Brazil.

During the same period in 2007, over 6.8 million products were seized, representing a growth of almost 80 per cent in counterfeit products removed from the market. After the South, the region with the largest number of products seized was the Southeast, with 38.4 per cent of the total, followed by the Northeast, with 2.5 per cent, the Central-West, with 2.4 per cent, and the North, with 1.2 per cent.

Data shows that the audiovisual industry lost some 198 million reis in 2005 as a result of piracy in Brazil. MPA associates’ losses total around R$ 102 million. According to Sindireceita (Brazil’s National Union of Federal Revenue Agents), piracy in general costs some 30 billion reis in lost sales per year, and 26 million formal jobs.