Dominican Piracy Control Policies

Diabolo

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May 2, 2002
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i didn't know the dominican republic's government, through its ministry of culture had an office or national direction that protects copyright and intelectual property. neither did i know that a campaign was launched last week in order to promote the author rights law as well as the actions taken against pirates in the country. Cero Tolerance to Piracy, as the campaign is called is not only sponsored by several dominican government agencies, but international entities such as the Business Software Alliance, BSA, is one of the major contributors in the development of this campaign.

intellectual property and copyright have been "-en vogue-" subjects all over the world during the last few years. it's definitely good to know that nations like the dominican republic, are taking actions regarding the protection of unique creations such as Software, music records, movies, etc.
 
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bichondad

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Jan 19, 2002
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LAWS

Diabolo,

The whole world is "concerned" about intellectual and copywrite theft.

The problem is that the poor countries dont have the money to do anything about it except "pass a Law". These countries will even create "comissions" or "departments" to enforce the "law" and then not have the money to fund them. :(

When people aren't eating and getting medical care, it's hard to convince them that they shouldn't "share" software much less not to copy it and make a few pesos to feed the family.
 

Diabolo

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CERO TOLERANCE TO PIRACY

the truth is dear friend that people not earning enough to buy food and provide for their families are definitely not earning enough to buy a computer or a vcr or a satellite dish if thats the case. then again you should take into consideration the chunk of society these programs are focused toward.

the government hasn't only passed a law concerning copyright and intellectual property, at least something is being done, and thats the good news.

with the aid of international entities such as the BSA, RIAA and the MPA, an advertising campaign is being implemented throughout tv, press and radio. saw the tv comertial yesterday and it looks like the charity of international organizations such as these can positively help.

the question right now is not whether the country is suffering from hunger because... and so forth and so on. if we as dominicans keep on using these subjects as excuses then nothing will never be done.

as soon as you hear the word in the street, and see everywhere that physical and intellectual entities are constantly being inspected, and that material is being seized by the ONDA, then you'll start considering this as an issue.

in the dominican republic, historical data has proven that some natives would suffer from what is popularly refferred to as the "guacanagarix complex". hunger and poverty are characteristic to all latin american and under developed countries, then again these shouldnt be considered as sufficient to ban them from information and education, conscience is being built throughout a growing country, and in the long run a big part of the population will in fact know that you cant plagiarize, or just burn a cd copying another one... they will know that those actions are severly punished.
 

AmbiorixPaulino

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Apr 24, 2002
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Although I am all for capitalism and due process I don't think that our Dominican politicians should be wasting their time going over who gets access to what when it has nothing to do with the people they supposedly represent, in other words, computers and CDR drives cost a lot of money and I don't think that more than a small percentage of people who can actually afford these devices go on to put in enough time and effort to figure out ways to cheat their exclusive socities.

P.S. Our policy makers should be working towards international trade agreements, better schooling, and entrepreneurial development programs.
 

Andy B

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Jan 1, 2002
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Ambiorix,
How would you like to spend countless hours and money developing something just to have a low-life rip off a copy and sell it for way below what you are selling your version for? Or, on a more personal note, how about having your website ripped off by an unscruplous thief after two of you spent over a year of 18 hours days building it?

How about the musicians who record in the DR and are rightfully due royalties on their CD's? Just how much do you think they collect from just the vendors on the Conde selling pirated copies at inflated prices to tourists (much less all the little stores throughout the DR peddling the same)? How about the companies that spend a great deal of money developing computer programs? Is it fair to them and their huge investment to burn a copy? Even some BIG companies here in the DR that could easily have afforded the software were running pirate programs until they were caught. Stealing is stealing.

Making pirated copies of just about anything eventually hurts the entire population as in many cases inferior products are palmed off as the real thing and does not perform as well as the original plus costs more in the long run.
A good case of this is a popular Italian water pump, Pedrollo, that is a good hard, working pump. Be careful when you go to buy one though. There is a cheaper, inferior copy, made in China, that is packaged EXACLY the same and carries the name Peddrolo (note the slight difference in spelling). Besides not having quite the same strength motor, the pump outlet is cast poorly and does not quite fit standard pipe thread. I accidentally bought one (at a price well below the real thing-thought I had made a real deal!) and had a devil of a time getting a tower-fitting to properly screw into the outlet. After spending a lot of time and gas running all over between Samana and Santiago (where I bought the pump), I finally found a sloppily-made, Chinese copy of the fiting and it worked. The extra cost: more than twice what I saved by buying the real Pedrollo. The hassle: a lot of time running around and now having to stock two different pumps and their fittings for my hotel's pressure water system.

Capitalism does encourage competition: improvement of a product, yes. outright theft, no. And no amount of excuses in the world can absolve copyright infringement.
 

AmbiorixPaulino

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The law's the law and if one chooses to abide by it or not they should be held accountable for their actions. In my rant I was attacking politicians with ulterior motives who, in my opinion, go off on tangents instead of representing the people who got them into office. The Dominican Republic needs to tackle all the issues that affect it but it is hard or me, as a Dominican, to fully appreciate attention that is taken away from the country's general wellbeing to monitor bourgeoisie greed. I'm saying; take care of the cow so the milk won?t spoil. Look at what it's eating and the quality of its pastures. Protect it, shelter it, empower it, and then go after the wolves who try their best to distract you, only to abuse and exploit your herd the minute you turn around.

P.S. Especially nowadays when many undisguised wolves walk freely among the cattle.
 

Andy B

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Jan 1, 2002
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Your point is well taken that many problems need to be addressed. But those very bourgeois you postulate are detracting from more important issues are big contributers to the DR economy. They inject funds that circulate throughout the economy; funds that are just as important as tourism, agriculture, etc. If the DR doesn't stop copyright piracy, the companies with products that can be easily copied will just take their business elsewhere and the DR will suffer once again. Granted copyright protection may not seem as pressing as immediately feeding the poor, but in the long run it has far greater impact on the economic well-being of this republic. And long-range planning is probably the most important issue facing this country; one that seems to take a back seat to the "live for today and not worry about tommorrow" mentality that afflicts a lot of Dominicans.
 

Diabolo

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May 2, 2002
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What About this situation

just when everything seemed to be on track, ONDA's director just resigned, nevertheless the district attorneys office through their intelectual property dept. keeps on doing a wonderful job (see this week's RUMBO magazine. what amazes me is that i overheard a conversation where they said that regarding ONDA, a new director hadn't been appointed by the president, instead the minister of culture appointed a fellow recognized dominican writer in the position. doesn't the law regard that this position be occupied by a lawyer???
 

mondongo

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Jan 1, 2002
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Interesting subject

Diabolo,AP,AB,Bich...how pervasive is copyright infringement in the DR? Which industries are mostly affected? has the extent of the theft been quantified...in terms of dollar value and as a percentage of affected industry's total volume of transactions?

Is this really dissauding foregin companies wit IP form setting up shop in the DR?....just curious since I know nothing about this subject....


mondongo
 

Andy B

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Jan 1, 2002
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We had much of our copyrighted website, www.samana.net stolen by a Dominican living in the Netherlands. You may remember the uproar here on DR1 about his site, the Samana site with the nl.nu extension. After a lot of hassle and me threatening prosecution by ONDA and the local Fiscal in Samana (this Dominican is from Sanchez in the province of Samana), he discontinued using our material.

Another website is using our name! It is a site in Germany that disguises itself as being from Las Galeras where I am located. It's address is www.samananet.com.de As it is a .de extension, I don't know what we can do at this time. We recently discovered it and as "Samana.Net" is not only copyrighted internationally, but ALSO in the DR, if anyone connected with this site is living in the DR, we may be able to prosecute them,...and I WILL!

It amazes me that some people are so non-creative that they have to steal material and even piggyback on the success of our name, Samana.Net. Is copyright prosecution needed here? The answer is a resounding yes!

The biggest violations here are pirate CD copies of music and video. Also, there are a lot of pirate computer programs around with some very large companies using them. There were several stories in the news regarding this about a year ago.
 

Diabolo

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May 2, 2002
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a reply to mondongo and andyb

regarding your reply mondongo, your vocabulary begs to differ onto your knowledge concerning the copyright subject. same subject that has been all over the news for the past two years. i'm a witness of the efforts that have been made to control this situation.

andy... one thing is these people stealing the content published in your website, and the other is naming it samana... as far as i know i could name my daughter Samana, if it pleases me, no one will be able to sue me for it, since it's a proper name.
 
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Andy B

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Diablo,
I doubt you would name your daughter "Samananet".com. OUR REGISTERED name is Samana.Net and I agree that just the word Samana is a proper name and can be used by anybody. I don't have any problems with other websites that have Samana in their name: Samana.com or the Samana page,...just samananet (our name).com. That is obviously an attempt to capitalize on our sucess and is simply unethical and illegal.
 

mondongo

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Jan 1, 2002
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Diabolo, since I already unabashedly admitted that "....I know nothing about this subject.... "...my post was a mere obsequious wish that an erudite like yourself would inculcate me with your keen knowledge. I would love to learn from you Diabolo. Were my questions inappropriate?

Andy, Sorry to hear about your site. It is heartening , though, to see that you received help from DR authorities. How often does this happen?

mondongo
"cause the more I know, the more I know I dont know"
 

Fabio J. Guzman

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Jan 1, 2002
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As a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Dominican Republic had to adapt and update many of its laws, especially in the field of intellectual property, which has been the subject of a comprehensive reform with the enactment of Law #20-00 and Regulation #408-00. The U.S. goverment also contributed to the enactment of the new legislation by exerting pressure on the Dominican government, making the passage of astrong anti-piracy legislation a condition for bilateral assistance.
 

Jim Hinsch

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Jan 1, 2002
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It is not illegal to "pirate" as Andy decribes. It isn't nice. Immoral or unethical is a matter of perspective. There is a process of arbitration set up specifically for this issue.

Stealing content too is up for debate. Not nice, but there is a broad area of contention.
 

Andy B

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Jan 1, 2002
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Jim,
Taking copyrighted web pages (or a registered name such as Samana.Net) and promoting them as your own is no different than copying a book, music CD or video movie which is flat against the law in the DR. There is no debate as to the legality of unauthorized use of copyrighted materials both internationally and now in the DR. Fabio is correct. The Procuradora General's office in Santo Domingo is actively involved in these cases and has been so for several years.

Reports of siezures and DESTRUCTION of pirated CD's, video cassettes/CD's and computer programs has been periodically in the news for the past several years. Check the archives.
 

Jim Hinsch

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It's not illegal to create a web site with a name similar to someone elses and compete. Anybody that wants can register ComeToSamana.net, Samana-1.net, Samananet.net, ... and fill it with content about Samana.

Copyrights infringement is illegal. Using similar site names is not.
 

Andy B

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Jan 1, 2002
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Jim,
I agree that "similar names" are fair game, EXCEPT we registered and own the name "samana.net" and one particular variation of it, samananet.net is close enough to warrant legal action and be considered an infringement. Thats like naming a product "Cokecola" or "CocaCola.cola" where the names "Coca Cola" and "Coke " are registered. If you will reread my previous posts you will see that other names that are variations of Samana were of no problem to me, just using Samana and net together as one word, i.e. Cocacola instead of Coca Cola. I also fully agree regarding taking copyrighted content; there is no question about the legality of that.

In a way all the piracy of our content and now using our name is a compliment. It means we are doing something right and the copycats and hanger's on are coming out of the woodwork. But put all the numbers together from all the other Samana content sites including the latest copycat (excluding Samana.com which is nothing more than a portal site with very little content other than links) and they don't get the amount of traffic in a month that we get in a few days.
 

Jim Hinsch

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How do you know what is the level of traffic from other sites? I don't think you do, because I own a number of sites and nobody is privy to that information unless I authorize it.

If someone copies your entire site and puts it up under a similar domain name, how does this hurt you financially? Most criminal copyright law in the USA requires a financial loss (in the USA, $1000 for misdemeaner, $2500 for felony and 10 copies of such). I know it sucks and I feel for you on that. But what is the financial loss, especially if they get so little traffic.

Doesn't the crime have to take place in the jursidiction of the authorities?

Do you think the Dominican authorities have the resources and knowledge to prosecute the operation of a website registered in the Netherlands for copyright violations? Even the US Govt. has a very difficult time with this in the presence of good defense attorneys.
 

Andy B

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First, some of the local sites have counters displayed on their pages and the info is in plain view. And in addition to us checking them periodically, we share some common customers and I get reports from them on how much traffic the other sites generate compared to us. Armed with this information, an educated guess is not hard to make. But the best proof is the amount of business generated by site exposure and we run circles around them when this is considered. Again a basic assumption can be made: more business is the result of more exposure.

Second, we have had some clients opt to advertise with the other local sites rather than us and that hurts us financially. Granted not a lot of clients have done this, but in a market as small as Samana, every customer counts.

Third, besides copyright being an internationally recognized law, the owners/representatives of these other sites conduct business by SELLING advertising in the Dominican Republic. Even though the host computer may be located elsewhere, this ALONE places them in the jurisdiction of the DR authorities and under DR copyright law. It is the same in most other countries regarding conducting business.

And finally, I know the DR doesn't necessarily have the resources to prosecute a violation outside the country. But unilateral copyright agreements between nations provides the framework that enables nations to work together and prosecute violators if they choose. Having nations take action depends on the seriousness of the violation and having political pull. And I agree that the governments have a hard time enforcing these laws. However there are other ways to sanction a violator, such as contacting the violator's ISP and filing a complaint with proof of the violation. In addition to milder reprimands, this can get the plug yanked on an internet copyright violator,...and THAT works (I know from several other instances we've quietly dealt with besides the Netherlands incident).