US embassy cable - 03ANKARA6577

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ANKARA 006577 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPT FOR EB/TPP/MTA/IPC 
DEPT PASS USTR FOR MWU/LERRION 
DEPT PASS LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
USDOC FOR ITA/MAC/DDEFALCO 
 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD, KIPR, TU 
SUBJECT:  Update on Copyright Enforcement:  Culture 
Minister Promises Measures to Curb Piracy 
 
 
Ref:  Ankara 4700 
 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
 
1. (SBU) Copyright industry representatives contend that 
gaps in Turkish legislation and weak enforcement are 
responsible for persistently high piracy.  The Culture 
and Tourism Minister promised the industry that the GOT 
would take several steps to tackle the problem, 
including a total ban on street sales of cultural 
materials.  This ban has been proposed before, but has 
not been implemented.  End Summary. 
 
 
2. (U) In late September and October, Econoff met with 
the following copyright industry representatives on 
enforcement problems:  Aydin Oskay, President of the 
Music Producers Professional Union (Turkish Acronym MU- 
YAP), Turkey's member of the International Federation of 
the Phonographic Industry; Nilufer Sapancilar, Director 
General of AMPEC, affiliated with the Motion Picture 
Association; Murat Turhan, an attorney with the Turhan 
and Turhan; Tugrul Pasaoglu, a member of the 
Professional Association of Literary and Scientific 
Works' Copyright Holders Professional Union (Turkish 
acronym EDISAM); Erol Ozkur, Anti-Piracy Marketing 
Manager for Microsoft; and Melih Ayracman, Managing 
Director of Sony Music Turkey. 
 
 
Weaknesses in Copyright Enforcement 
----------------------------------- 
 
 
3. (U) Our interlocutors maintain that copyright piracy 
remains high - particularly for music, films and books - 
due to gaps in Turkish legislation and significant 
problems in enforcement and the judicial system.  EDISAM 
stated that the copyright law did not make piracy a 
"public crime", which would allow the police to 
intervene against pirates without a complaint by the 
rightholder.  Others pointed out that Turkey's courts 
have chosen not to apply prison sentences, as provided 
in Turkey's copyright law, against street vendors. 
These pirates have instead been prosecuted under the 
cinema law, with much weaker penalties.  In practice, 
Turkey's public prosecutors often fail to prosecute 
pirates.  As a result, the largest de facto sanction 
remains confiscation of pirate materials by law 
enforcement authorities. 
 
 
4. (U) Several of our interlocutors criticized the GOT's 
interagency provincial enforcement commissions as 
ineffective.  Pasaoglu told us these commissions were 
functioning primarily in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, and 
not at all in more remote provinces.  MU-YAP agreed that 
the commissions were not effective in combating piracy, 
but argued that rightholder associations needed to give 
them greater support as well. 
 
 
5. (U) Ayracman, in a presentation to the Foreign 
Investors Association (Turkish acronym YASED) 
International Advisory Committee, also raised the 
continuing problem of broadcast piracy, with most radio 
stations still not paying royalties to rightholders. 
 
 
Minister Promises Action 
------------------------ 
 
 
6. (U) Speaking at a September 27 and 28 copyright 
conference, Culture and Tourism Minister Erkan Mumcu 
promised more action to repress piracy and provided the 
following statistics on seizures of pirated material: 30 
million compact disks; 276,000 VCDs; 50 million books; 5 
million cassettes and nearly 18,000 computer program 
compact disks.  Note:  Edisam claims the Minister's 
statistics for book seizures are inflated, as the GOT 
had only confiscated 94,000 books in the 12 months 
ending in August 2003.  Edisam itself is responsible for 
confiscation of 350,000 books.  End Note. 
 
 
7. (SBU) Industry representatives told us that Mumcu 
promised them that he would take several specific 
measures to combat piracy: 
 
 
-- Banning street sales of "cultural products" entirely; 
 
 
-- Establishing a licensing system to force hotels, 
restaurants and other establishments to pay royalties 
for copyright materials used in public places; 
-- (Unspecified) measures to strengthen the provincial 
enforcement commissions. 
 
 
8. (SBU) Mumcu told industry representatives that he 
planned to draft and begin vetting draft legislation or 
a draft regulation to effect these changes within the 
next ten days.  Note:  To our knowledge, this has not 
occurred.  End Note. 
Comment 
------- 
 
 
9. (SBU) The copyright industries have lobbied for a ban 
on street sales of optical media and books as the best, 
and perhaps only way, to effectively enforce copyright. 
The Culture and Tourism Ministry told us in July 
(reftel) that it intended to implement the ban, but has 
not done so.  Embassy will seek an update from the 
Ministry on this subject in the near future. 
Edelman