Ecuador decriminalizes intellectual property rights violations

iipa.com reported:

Special 301 Recommendation:
IIPA recommends that USTR retain Ecuador on the Wa
tch List in 2014.
1
Executive Summary:
In December 2013, the National Assembly of Ecuador
adopted amendments to the
criminal code that decriminalize all intellectual
property rights (IPR) violations, by eliminating Cha
pter III, “Offenses
and Penalties” (Sections 319 to 331), of the Intell
ectual Property Law. With this drastic change, crim
inal enforcement
will come to a stop, leaving only administrative en
forcement and fines for the public enforcement of copyright.

IF YOU ALREADY LIVE IN ECUADOR – READ THIS BOOK’S PREDICTION ABOUT CURRENCY IN ECUADOR

On the backdrop of a long history of
piracy of copyrighted works, the development leaves
little optimism that a reasonable
legitimate market can reopen in the near future for
the works of IIPA’s members. The United States Government
should press the Government of Ecuador to repeal
these amendments, which will cripple the country’s
ability to
tackle widespread street piracy and growing online
piracy, and will bring Ecuador out of compliance wi
th its important
obligation as a member of the World Trade Organizati
on (WTO) to provide adequate criminal procedures, including
deterrent penalties, for the enforcement of IPR under Article 61 of the TRIPs Agreement. READ ARTICLE