GREECE AND IPR -- VISIT BY USTR

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ATHENS 001456 SIPDIS DEPT FOR EUR/SE - IGOODMAN DEPT FOR EEB/TPP/IPE - JURBAN DEPT PASS TO USDOC - HILLEARY SMITH DEPT PASS TO USTR - LESLIE YANG DEPT PASS TO USPTO - MSMITH E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON ETRD KIPR GR PREL SUBJECT: GREECE AND IPR -- VISIT BY USTR REF: ATHENS 01360 ATHENS 00001456 001.2 OF 003 Summary: -------------- ¶1. (SBU) During the visit of Leslie Yang (USTR's Director for Europe),Government of Greece (GoG) officials outlined current and planned efforts to improve IPR protection and enforcement. Yang also met with Greek industry representatives including: Business Software Alliance (BSA), the Association of Greek Producers of Phonograms (IFPI),and the Motion Picture Association (EPOE). The industry representatives re-iterated the key points echoed during meetings with Department of Commerce Hilleary Smith as reported in reftel. Specifically, industry continued to stress that it wanted concrete results from the GoG, especially from the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) and the newly created working groups as well as stronger enforcement in the judiciary and enforcement components. In a separate meeting following Yang's visit, Hellenic Copyright Office (OPI) Director Irini Stamatoudi briefed EconOff on GoG's efforts and said that IMC would help, also citing a new inter-governmental database of IPR infringers to track repeat-offenders. Whether there will be significant concrete improvements in IPR protection and enforcement remains to be seen, including whether the IMC will take effective action. End Summary. Industry Still Wants to See Results -------------- ¶2. (SBU) As reported in reftel cable in DOC Smith's visit, industry representatives repeated to Yang that they would like to see concrete results from the GoG. Arhondoula Papapanagiotou from BSA stressed that the tax police should execute more raids and should publicize their results. (reftel) As for GoG's efforts on IPR protection and enforcement, she said they did not get the impression that a working group was empowered to take concrete steps. IFPI representatives including Irene Tsiliri and Panos Theofanellis who had met with Hilleary Smith told Yang that the judicial element needed strengthening and that administrative fines not being imposed by police. IFPI also expressed great concern regarding changes to the Greek law being considered by a Legislative Committee. In addition, IFPI railed against the GoG's efforts thus far, and commented that they were not getting any political support from the GoG. (reftel) In the meeting with EPOE, the representative Jim Valsamides highlighted lack of public education/outreach and the need to improve the judicial education. Despite industry's attempts to give a prioritized short wish-list, he doubted whether the GoG would be able to keep a consistent approach to addressing IPR protection and enforcement. All three associations discussed difficulties in getting cooperation from ISPs in combating internet piracy. Special Tax Police (YPEE): Taking Off the Gloves -------------- --- ¶3. (SBU) Special Tax Police (YPEE) head Marios Tsakas detailed the results of the five previous waves of audit letters sent to companies requesting documentation of their software licenses. Tsakas said the process was going well, but that there was a mixed response from companies. For those companies that did not reply, Tsakas said he sent out small teams to investigate on a sporadic basis. Although he did not have the capacity to check all the companies, most companies tended to comply for fear of getting a more a thorough audit of all their accounting books. If a violation is discovered, Tsakas said that companies get an administrative fine of 900 euros for each illegal software multiplied per user. In addition to the fine, the companies are obligated to pay fees to obtain the license for each operating user. ¶4. (SBU) Regarding the publishing of statistics, Tsakas said that his organization planned to include more information on the YPEE website although some numbers could not be included due to their confidentiality. Overall, YPEE shared a positive working relationship with the Business Software Alliance (BSA),especially the letter campaign to tackle illegal software piracy. Nevertheless, it continues to be a struggle to enforce IPR for illegally downloaded music. He added that YPEE had a difficult time addressing illegal ATHENS 00001456 002.2 OF 003 software in the public sector as each minister should be held accountable for violations in their ministries. ¶5. (SBU) Hellenic Copyright Office (OPI) Director Irini Stamatoudi stressed to EconOff in a September 30 meeting that YPEE was "extremely effective" and sent representatives to participate in all GoG IPR-related meetings. Although Stamatoudi said she has not yet met with YPEE's new head, she said he had a strong reputation and believed he would do a good job. In spite of the positive cooperation with YPEE, Stamatoudi added YPEE could not tackle IPR alone and needed help from the Ministries of Interior and Justice. Judicial Education -------------- ¶6. (SBU) President of the Judges Academy in Athens Takis Pikramenos specializes in administrative, not IP, law. But by discussing current education at the Academy with Yang and EconOff, the idea of IPR enforcement seminars directly following IP sessions at the Academy emerged. Such seminars could be in a roundtable-format with European interlocutors who share a similar legal system. Stamatoudi mentioned separately that IPR seminars could be tacked on to an upcoming seminar hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) on money-laundering and trafficking. She thought this might be a good way to give this topic some urgency and give judges the opportunity to ask in-depth questions, especially those who work in specialized units that handle IPR cases. ¶7. (SBU) MFA representative Christina Argiropoulou underlined that the IMC was dedicated to developing a long-term IPR strategy, but part of the problem involved the context (reftel). "The problem with the Greek justice system is that we have to be mindful of the independence of judges and that the Greek Government does not have the authority to impose certain mandates on the judges," she explained. Argiropoulou said the plan was to sensitize the judges to the issue in an "indirect and discreet" manner. The working groups were working on a three-pillar strategy: inter-government statistics, enforcement by the judges, and public awareness. In order to bring about concrete change in IPR protection and enforcement, Argiropoulou said the working groups, thus far, have two concentrations--one group will focus on "operational" issues of enforcement, the other group will review Greek law to see if changes in the law are needed to improve IPR protection and enforcement." (reftel) ¶8. (SBU) Argiropoulou said SecGen Skylakakis (IMC Chair) would like to have a meeting with the private sector at some point. (Comment: It is still not clear how the IMC will take into account private sector input. End Comment.) She added there would be meetings of the working group and the IMC before the end of the month. Argiropoulou said that the GoG is taking steps to combat piracy because of loss of money, not because of the Special 301 Watch List listing. She noted the GoG had received USG input in the Special 301 initiative paper. Yang explained how the USG hoped to use a Special 301 initiative as a vehicle for increased engagement between the USG and the GoG. Getting Interest-Groups on the Same Page -------------- ¶9. (SBU) In separate meetings, Argiropoulou and Stamatoudi admitted the challenges involved in getting Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to shut down the accounts of IPR infringers. Stamatoudi described how OPI had launched an open forum on their website to get public input on the role of ISPs in combating internet piracy, but it resulted in attracting remarks against the proposal. In spite of assurances from the GoG, most ISPs refused to take action unless there was specific legislative requirement. There was no political will, given strong privacy data laws and heightened Greek sensitivities to the issue, to bring about significant changes at this time; nevertheless, Stamatoudi said she was examining legislation in other European countries that could provide examples with an aim to amend current copyright law. ¶10. (SBU) Stamatoudi warned that industry needed to have a more cohesive approach to approaching IPR. She stressed that there were often disconnects between the groups and that it was difficult at times to facilitate constructive dialogue on the issue. For example, she pointed to the case of establishing a inter-governmental database, housed in OPI, to ATHENS 00001456 003.2 OF 003 keep track of IPR violators and repeat-offenders. The Association of Greek Producers of Phonograms (IFPI) agreed to the initiative, while EPOE, the local representatives for the Motion Picture Association did not. Stamatoudi also insisted that neither BSA nor IFPI had the appropriate licenses from the Ministry of Culture to act as official representatives for their respective industries, but she continued to meet with them to discuss their needs. IFPI told us that they had applied and received a one-time license to operate. In the meeting with Stamatoudi she complained that the IFPI ran to the police when they had information and did not keep OPI in the loop on all the reports, yet the police had told her that they rarely had the complete information needed to make an arrest. Collaboration is Good, Still Needs Improvement -------------- - ¶11. (SBU) Director General of Customs Nikolas Vernadakis maintained that relations with the MFA and the Ministry of Culture were quite good and that they have achieved considerable progress. Vernadakis commented that the next step will be the creation of an inter-agency database that captures the data of the IPR infringers and will be created in close collaboration with the private sector. He said that some of his employees had attended a special training session by Nike and had found it useful to identify counter-feit goods. In response to FCS officer suggestion that the World Customs Organization would be happy to provide to trainers, Vernadakis welcomed the idea. Similarly, he thought industry could work with the customs and police forces more effectively to identify pirated goods such as CDs and DVDs. ¶12. (SBU) Despite Vernadakis' positive spin, Stamatoudi reported separately that the problem was not the police, but the municipality officials who were not allowed to carry a weapon. "They are not effective and they need to be empowered," she said. She recommended that the municipality officials go with special units from the tax police to enforce the law. These types of "mixed raids" would have a better impact, she said. Comment -------------- ¶13. (SBU) The newly-created Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) and working groups were lauded by all interlocutors; however, there needs to be concrete results tied to the creation of these groups to support the GoG's back-slapping on this issue. Also outstanding is to what extent the IMC and working groups will take into account industry input. End Comment. SPECKHARD