Cablegate: Turkey Restrict Street Vendors to Combat

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

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.
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