In November over 2m pirated CDs and DVDs were impounded from the streets of São Paulo, Brazil’s biggest market for illegal wares. The Association for the Defence of Intellectual Property estimates that the country’s annual trade in fake goods is worth $198m. Under pressure from international manufacturers, São Paulo’s mayor, Gilberto Kassab, has toughened the penalties for pirating. From October 30th sellers of illegal goods may lose their trade licences for up to ten years. In the past, they would merely lose their merchandise, so they could restock within days.
The challenge will be enforcement: the city has about 600 inspectors to police an estimated 6,000 street vendors and 30,000 shops selling pirated merchandise. Inspectors are expected to concentrate on Rua 25 de Março, São Paulo’s busiest shopping street, which attracts 1m shoppers a day in the run-up to Christmas, and on Rua Santa Ifigênia—both of which are awash with bootleg products. When Keith Beeman, the head of Microsoft’s worldwide licence compliance, visited Rua Santa Ifigênia recently he was offered a copy of his company’s yet-to-be released Windows Vista operating system for $4.50.
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