Turkey Restrict Street Vendors to Combat

UNCLAS ANKARA 004700 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EB/TPP/MTA/IPC DEPT PASS USTR FOR KALVAREZ DEPT PASS LIBRARY OF CONGRESS USDOC FOR ITA/MAC/DDEFALCO E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ETRD KIPR TU SUBJECT: Turkey Restrict Street Vendors to Combat Piracy ¶1. Meeting with Econoff and Econ Specialist July 23, Gunay Gormez, Deputy Director General for Copyright Issues at the Turkish Ministry of Culture, informed us that the GOT had stepped up intellectual property rights enforcement in recent weeks. Provincial auditing commissions had received additional equipment and resources in support of anti-piracy operations. Istanbul, Izmir and coastal resort areas are the focus of additional enforcement efforts. Gormez said that the Culture Minister recently decided to ban all street sales of optical media in an effort to fight piracy. Law enforcement authorities are beginning sweeps of street vendors. ¶2. Gormez said the Culture Ministry was very interested in exchanges with the Library of Congress and other U.S. government bodies to develop expertise in copyright registration of handicraft and cultural articles. Embassy requests a point of contact at the Library of Congress to explore this issue further. Deutsch