The last panel of the day at the Global Conference Combating Counterfeiting and Piracy was titled “The power of education and awareness in building respect for IP.” It was moderated by John Tarpey, Director of WIPO’s Communications Division. He said the methods used to raise awareness of the problems of counterfeiting and piracy have changed. The approach used to be tougher, focusing on the consumer as criminal, especially when it came to kids illegally downloading music. This didn’t work well, so the approach is changing. There are numerous new approaches going on. “Fear is still used as an approach,” but it is more about fear for one’s personal safety.
Tarpey showed a slide of a Brazilian subway poster with an image of counterfeit drugs and a gun. Next he showed a slide from the National Association of Pharmacy Boards that read “FACT: There is an 85% chance that the online drug you are purchasing is counterfeit.” He showed an ad that will be used in New York that focuses on the effect that book piracy has on jobs, which reads “Piracy doesn’t work in NYC.” A British Music Matters campaign aims to remind listeners of the value of music from the point of view of everyone involved, including musicians. It has a more subtle, educational approach that aims to make consumers to think about the issues. Soft sells like this may be way of the future when we talk about piracy.
Philippe Lacoste, Vice-Chairman of the French manufacturers’ group UNIFAB was the first speaker. UNIFAB was started by the pharmaceutical industry, but now its members include firms from all industries. They do trainings, give information, cooperate with public authorities, and try to raise awareness that IP infringement is more than an economic problem – it is a moral, human problem. Anticounterfeiting is also a matter of protecting the consumer, who wants to spend money on something that has real value, and who doesn’t want a shoddy product. We need to communicate with the consumer about the harm caused by counterfeits and how hard it is to protect genuine products. The internet makes counterfeiting accessible very easily, so we need to find a legal framework to protect rights on the internet.
UNIFAB outreach is mainly comprised of
- Museum of Counterfeiting (12,000 visitors per year, 80% students)
- Campaigns for different demographic groups, like youth
- Press campaigns
- “Mickey” comic books. [Their own cartoon character, not Mickey Mouse].
The next speaker was Jack Chang, General Electric’s Senior IP Counsel for Asia and Chairman of the Quality Brands Protection Committee in China. He said he’s learned lessons by fighting counterfeiting in China. I’ve seen colleagues fighting counterfeit drugs embrace counterfeit products in other areas, like apparel, and people fighting counterfeits but still listening to pirated music. This was not lost on China’s government officials, who would bring it up. So it is important to make sure your own people are not contributing to the problem. The QBPC just passed a resolution and sent letters to all of the members to urge their employees to only use legitimate software on both their work and personal computers.
To reach out to the Chinese, QBPC made flyers for tourists that explained the problems of counterfeiting and had pictures of Chinese child labor. These flyers also had information on where the tourists could buy real Chinese traditional products as souvenirs. The flyers were distributed at the Olympics, and Chinese officials began to realize that anti-counterfeiting efforts were actually going to be good for China.
Next, Chang brought up a case where a counterfeiter was sent to jail, but the counterfeiter had been providing help to the community. The police officer who arrested the counterfeiter was thought of being a bad guy. The point is that when you are spreading a message, make sure to take into account local realities, and make sure you don’t come off wrong.
Graham Henderson, President of the Canadian Recording Industry Association urged people to make better use of social media. IP advocates need to be active in social media because that is where people, especially young people, get their information. Social Media is an environment where people who disregard IP excel (for example, a Canadian anti-copyright Facebook site was used to promote a grassroots anti-copyright movement). Think about what people are currently learning in the social media environment: “theft” is now “sharing,” and people say IP is an impediment to innovation. It is starting to seem true, but it is a “great lie.” We need to challenge these statements whenever, wherever we see them. This includes Facebook and YouTube, Blogs, and anything with a “comment” section like mainstream news outlets and online newsletters. In academia, we need people to refute papers that say that innovation is being stifled by IP. Those who support IP are being outspent in the area of knowledge creation.
Henderson recommended thinking about who should be targeted and who should deliver the message. Corporations and (surprisingly) musicians are bad communicators to youth, because they won’t be trusted. If we want to challenge people’s values, we should realize that most people develop their values at home, so we need to talk to parents. We need to radicalize and activate our own base – the creators and their friends, neighbors and family.
William Dobson, the Senior Policy Manager for the ICC’s Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy presented the results of BASCAP focus groups and surveys conducted in five countries. They found that people are tempted to buy counterfeits because of their low prices and improving quality. People perceived no possible risk of punishment from purchasing counterfeits.
According to the people in the focus groups and surveys the following could be effective deterrents for use in reaching out to consumers:
- Health risks and safety concerns
- Wasting money
- Genuine offers of better services and reliable warranties from manufacturers
- Realistic threat of legal action
- Links to organized crime (people cared more about this than BASCAP expected)
Based on initial focus groups, BASCAP tried out different tag lines, and eventually settled on “I buy real” and “Fakes cost more.” They are making a series of ads with these lines, and with a focus-group tested logo (with a thumbs-down icon for “Fakes cost more” and a thumbs-up icon for “I buy real”). They are currently sharing this upcoming campaign with like-minded groups and looking for partners.
David Finn, Associate General Counsel for Anti-Counterfeiting and Anti-Piracy at Microsoft gave a presentation titled “Prosecuting criminals, Protecting Consumers and Publicizing the Message.” He said that consumers are genuinely concerned about using counterfeit software. In a survey, 80% of people polled had concerns about the safety of counterfeit software, and 73% said they prefer to use genuine software. 50% of respondents were worried about data loss or identity theft. And the fears are not unfounded – a Microsoft survey of pirated software found that 50% of fakes in 17 countries had malware or could not install.
Finn says we need to get this message out, and also the message that counterfeiting is linked to organized crime. La Familia, the brutal Mexican gang usually known for drug trafficking, is also highly involved with counterfeiting Microsoft products. They make about $2.24 million daily from sales of selling counterfeited products. They have 180,000 points of sale, and Mexican officials recently seized 2 tons of counterfeits from them.
During the question and answer period, an attendee from the Philippines asked the panel if anyone had thought of revoking the visas of retailers who purchase counterfeits. Many of the retailers are mostly engaged in legitimate businesses that require international travel, but will sometimes buy counterfeits. A policy where you confiscate their visas can be effective.
Another participant recommended that BASCAP explore the body of literature on effective communications strategies for behavior change that has been created in the healthcare field. There have been analyses of different approaches used to convince the public to eat healthy, exercise, stop smoking, etc. This could be applied in outreach to consumers about the dangers of counterfeits.
