 The Alianza Nacional para la Defensa de la Industria Musical, ANDIM, is a civil association that was created in September, 2000 that has as its main objective, ANDIM: fight against the illegal activity of Musical piracy as an answer and also to reinforce the growth of the legal market of pieces of work and phonograms. This organization is constituted by all of the sectors of the musical industry which are authors, composers, editors, producers, distributors, repliers, artists, interpreters and performers.
Say no to Piracy
For the first time in Venezuela, authors, composers, interpreters, editors, phonographic producers and related representatives of the musical industry got their voices to protest against the piracy scourge
7:30 am: Putting up the stage.
8:00 am: the first sound tests.
9:00 am: young students started to gather in front of the stage, while security agents surrounded the zone.
9:30 am: there were cries and sighs because of the arrival of renowned national singers. Microphones and sound were ready
10:00 am: to many people’s surprise, a show did not start. Instead it was a civic protest whose means of expression was music. It was an Anti-Piracy “siege” that was organized by the Alianza Nacional para la defensa de la Industria Musical, ANDIM.
This initiative helped authors, composers, interpreters, editors, phonographic producers and related representatives of the musical industry to gather for the first time and they decided to make an alert call before the substantial growth that the pirate business people’s activity has been experimenting.
Simon Díaz, Chelique Sarabia, Freddy López, Cristóbal Jiménez, Rummy Olivo, Ricardo Montaner, Jump, Los Adolescentes, Calle Ciega, A.5, Salserín, UP4, Tambor Urbano, Víctor Morillo, Betulio Medina and Los Hijos de la Calle were some of the national stars that attended the appointment at Brion Square in Chacaito, which was the scenery where this particular manifestation took place.
For more than four hours, the great audience that attended the event supported the cries of “No to piracy!” and “Let’s not burn the music” that the artists put up to protest against this scourge. In this same way, the support given by the mass media communication means was very clear to sensibilize the community about the damage that this criminal activity causes.
The corsair of pirates
The illegal reproduction of brands, books, music, software and videos (video games and movies) have become an economical option that has been adopted by many Venezuelan people in order to survive the crisis that the country is going through. Its growth is evident and its rentability is unarguable: in the social branch, illegal copying does not require any tax paying, any services or any employees, and at the same time, in the merchandising area, it does not require advertising, expensive recording studios, professional hours, manufacturing expenses and author’s rights, among others.
Based on this, it seems that the motto that serves as a guide to pirate business people is the “industry makes the largest expense, while we make the sales”. From a simple point of view, these words express something that is very real. It is enough to walk around the downtown area in the main country cities to realize how much land the national industry has lost in front of piracy. Going even deeper into this problem, it is possible to find very alarming figures: Between the years 1999 and 2000, the legal industry increased its sales only 6.81 per cent in contrast to the overwhelming growth of 119.44 per cent that was experienced by the pirate one.
Musical piracy has attacked with such force that, only last year, the two record manufacturers that exist in Venezuela (Optilaser and Rodven) operated with only ten per cent of their installed capacity; in other words, 4.3 million units per year. The situation that the legal music industry is going through is so bad that, according to some spokesmen in the field, out of three phonographic supports that are sold in the present market, two of them correspond to pirate copies and only one is a legal reproduction.
In the year 2000, the legitimate market had an income up to twenty-five billion Bolivar as the product of the sale of four million seven hundred thousand supports, while the loses duplicated as a consequence of the placement of seven million nine hundred illegal units.
Regardless of this reality, the legal industry has demonstrated to be an agent that is economically engaged with the Venezuelan Estate. While the National Treasury could not obtain more than seven billion Bolivar because of the pirate activity, the legitimate market paid its taxes at the right moment, which were more than three thousand million bolivars in the year 2000.
Let us work
Before this situation, actions to be taken by the musical industry have not been delayed. Besides the Anti-Piracy “siege”, the representatives in the field have started a series of programs that pretend to fight and control illegal reproduction emissions. In this sense, the Asociación de Autores y Compositores de Venezuela (SACVEN), the Asociación Venezolana de Interpreters y Productores Fonográficos (AVINPRO), the Asociación de Editores (AFONOVEN), the repliers (OPTILASER), the Cámara Venezolana de Productores Fonográficos, the Asociación Venezolana de Productores Fonográficos y Videográficos (APROFON) and the record stores “Recordland” and “Town Records” – grouped in NADIM – gave the national authorities a document with their action proposals that should be started by both the public and the private sectors in order to diminish the growth of the pirate activity in the country. Among the proposals it is important to mention the extension of the competence related to the author’s right to all the fiscal offices of the Public Ministry; the design of a program to encourage the legal phonographic support commercialization; better control of customs so that they verify the entrance and the use that is given to virgin supports and related phonographic items; and a national plan of anti-piracy campaign that would have the goal to educate and inform the collectivity about the criminal character of this activity.
In relation to the last proposition, SACVEN decided to go around the main cities of the National territory in order to inform the public about the legal normative that rules the author’s right subject, as well as to make people conscious about the damage that piracy causes to the creative activity of Venezuelan authors and artists and, of course, to the cultural development of the country. Through the so called Forums on the Author’s Right and Related Rights, SACVEN went around Lara, Aragua and Cojedes States with a remarkable panel of law professionals that was informing the collectivity about the economical prejudice that the parallel business people’s activity causes to music, software, video and cable television industries.
But work is not over. It is planned that the forums continue taking place in the rest of Venezuela and that events such as the one held on Brion Square in Chacaito extend to other cities where piracy is causing very bad damage to a highly productive sector of the domestic economy. Might it be to the harp, salsa, merengue, pop or ballad, it is necessary to get together for not permitting this expressive mass media communication means to be silent.
Our direct fight against pirate business people has made us confiscate over one hundred and forty illegal supports only this year, including compact discs, cassettes, video games and VHS movies”. So was reported by General Commissioner Orlando Gutiérrez, former Investigations director of the Metropolitan Police, who explained to “Notas” that the confiscated merchandise was destroyed in the presence of the Public Minister representative, the mass media communication means and witnesses who attest the right execution of the procedures.
According to what he said, actions are being directed by the Author’s Right Department of the Metropolitan Police, under the direction of Inspector Edgar Tillero who, together with two officials, works very hard to fight this scourge that is very dangerous for the domestic phonographic industry stability, among other sectors.
When asked about the factors that have influenced the piracy growth, the representative of the Metropolitan Police said that one of the causes is the country’s situation. “Many unemployed people find in the sale of pirate merchandise an alternative to their economic problems”, he said.
Another reason that, in his opinion, has had great influence on this illegal activity is the lightness of the punishments that the Author’s Right Law establishes for those who commit this crime (punishments from eighteen months to four years of prison). In relation to this he remarks that “there is so much arbitrarily on this subject that, sometimes, the people involved in this business get a favorable verdict in court, according to which the police must give them back the confiscated electronic equipment – this is burners, computers and printers”.
According to the words said by the new Citizen Participation Direction of the Metropolitan Police Boss, the piracy growth has become a culture problem. “Most of Venezuelans do not understand that this affects the country, they do not evaluate the big loses that the big enterprises dedicated to the legal activity suffer and they do not believe that fighting against piracy will contribute to the recovery of an important sector that takes part in the domestic economic reactivation.”
Commissioner Gutiérrez remarked that there is still a lot to do, but the human, physic and economic resources lack does not allow them to develop more offensive actions against the big Mafia that operates in this business. “We have attacked the street vendor and the intermediary and, even if we have given hard strokes, our procedures have not been able to get to this crime actual responsible people". |
Editorial
