Terror groups boost pirate, counterfeit business, Turkish minister says

ISTANBUL

Police seizure pirate DVDs during a raid in Istanbul. Customs and trade minister says counterfeiting and piracy posed a particular threat to social life. DHA photo

A number of terrorist organizations have recently increased their pirate and counterfeit goods activities, Customs and Trade Minister Hayati Yazıcı warned yesterday during the opening session of the 7th Global Congress on Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy.

“Protecting intellectual property rights will prevent the financial sources of terrorist organizations,” Yazıcı said.

At the congress, held at Istanbul’s Lütfi Kırdar Congress Center, Yazıcı said intellectual and industrial property law reflected the traces of a society, adding that international platforms were of vital importance to improve the methods of combating counterfeiting and piracy and the cooperation between countries.

“We recognize the right of intellectual and industrial property as a fundamental human right. The law of intellectual property has a 163-year past in our country,” he said.

Yazıcı also said the globalization of trade and economic improvements had to run parallel with the improvement of intellectual property rights. “If economic factors and technologies are used effectively, modern product types with higher added-values will take the place of traditional product types,” he said.

According to Yazıcı, there is a multidimensional relationship between protecting intellectual property rights and international investments, adding that the possibility of attracting international investment for countries that achieved a one-point increase in the “Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights Index” increased by 27 percent.

He said counterfeiting and piracy posed a particular threat to social life, as they were both used in the financing of terrorist groups, adding that around 70 percent of such activities were conducted by organized criminal organizations.

“Tax losses will decrease and employment will rise if the rights of intellectual property are protected effectively … We will implement a project on Intellectual and Industrial Property Rights with the EU, which will cost a total of 4 million euros,” Yazıcı said.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who also made a speech at the congress, said the solution to the piracy problem required global solidarity, adding that the economic, legal and social constraints of the issue should also be considered.

Erdoğan said theft was a serious offense that could not be tolerated in any form.

“The global system should also combat the reasons causing theft, along with the theft itself. A system that aims at combating theft without struggling against poverty cannot succeed. It is necessary to combat poverty and theft at the same time. As in many global issues, we have to focus on the motivations that lead people to steal,” Erdoğan said, adding that the piracy and counterfeiting problem could be solved by fighting poverty, injustice, and the unequal distribution of income.