Azerbaijan fights piracy in retail
By Nigar Orujova
Application of the control stamps for labeling products of intellectual property contributes to the disappearance of pirated copies of software in stores of Azerbaijan, a source on IT-market told Trend.
The use of control marks is one of the measures that can be an effective way to combat piracy in the field of intellectual property.
"Product labeling is only one way to clean shop windows from counterfeit products. However, to eradicate piracy, it is necessary to find the root of its origin, that is, to determine whether the product is produced in the country or imported, whether the piracy is on industrial scale or production is made in small batches clandestinely?" said the source.
It is also important that while control is strengthening in retail, piracy migrate to the Internet, he noted. In this regard, it is necessary to consider the possibility of locking counterfeit business in a virtual environment.
"We know that the fight against torrent piracy is pointless, as if to block the site, it will soon appear on the network under a different name. Azerbaijan is taking the right steps to combat piracy. This means that there is a dynamics, and the fight against piracy in retail is a good indicator," the source added.
The level of usage of pirated softwares is reaching 85 percent in Azerbaijan, according to the latest report of the Business Software Alliance. At the end of 2014, the Software Alliance reported the piracy rate was at 87 percent. However, the agency said the figure is not the highest across the CIS countries.
The Center for Intellectual Property Rights under the Azerbaijan's Copyright Agency is regulating issuing of control marks for the objects of copyright.
Earlier, the Agency completed technical and organizational works on the implementation of special control marks in the production of intellectual property. The special control holograms are used on software products, medicines packages, book covers (including religious books), etc.
It is expected that all products in Azerbaijan, including those subjected to copyright, and related rights will be provided with special control marks.
Products distributed without these holograms are considered piracy and their distributers are fined in accordance with the Code of Administrative Offences.
Microsoft Azerbaijan is also monitoring the market to find out usage of counterfeited software. Monitoring showed the actual absence of sales of counterfeit software in large stores.
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Nigar Orujova is AzerNews’s staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @o_nigar
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