US embassy cable - 03ANKARA4700

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