The music and film industries in Brazil have announced they will combine their efforts to combat content piracy in the country. The country's music industry body APDIF will join with the movie industry's ADEPI to launch the Associacao Antipirateria Cinema and Musica. The two bodies hope that by combining their anti-piracy efforts they can more effectively fight the country's significant music and movie black market, which industry execs say currently supply about half of all CDs and DVDs sold in the country.
Confirming the partnership, Antonio Borges, who will be General Director of the new body, told reporters: "Piracy in Brazil is undermining the ability of the music and film industries to invest in the next generation of local talent. The music and film industries are teaming up to help the police in their investigations into the criminal gangs involved in both physical and online piracy".
The move is backed by the music and film industries elsewhere in the world, who also lose out because of high levels of piracy in the Brazilian market. Iain Grant, Worldwide Head Of Enforcement for the International Federation Of The Phonographic Industry, is quoted by Billboard as saying: "Seeking strategic partnerships to achieve common goals is part of our approach to fighting piracy and defending intellectual property rights. This is a step forward for recording industry rights holders in Brazil".
John Malcolm of the Motion Picture Association of America adds: "We are enthusiastic about this union, the first of its kind in Latin America and the first in a country with a market both as large and as with as much potential as Brazil. We firmly believe that by uniting forces in Brazil, we will be able to leverage greater results than either entity could achieve on its own".