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RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDBU RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA
RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHHE #0102/01 0461029
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 151029Z FEB 07
FM AMEMBASSY HELSINKI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2970
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HELSINKI 000102 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD KIPR ECON EUN FI
SUBJECT: FINNISH CUSTOMS LAUNCHES PUBLIC AWARENESS 
CAMPAIGN AGAINST COUNTERFEITS 
 
 
¶1. On International Customs Day, January 26, 2007, Finnish 
Customs, in cooperation with the Finnish Copyright 
Information and Anti-piracy Center (CIAPC) launched an 
extensive consumer information campaign against counterfeit 
products that has won plaudits from both industry and other 
EU member states. The campaign was the brainchild of Senior 
Customs inspector Anssi Kartila, a U.S. International 
Visitor grantee in 1999, and features six posters, covering 
all kinds of counterfeit products, from music to medicines. 
The posters are shown at all customs border crossing 
points, harbors and airports across Finland. Targeting the 
border crossings is especially effective since Finland 
shares a long border with Russia which represents the 
eastern frontier of the EU. The aim of the campaign is to 
make people realize that not only are their actions 
illegal, but as consumers they are denying themselves safe 
and good-quality products. 
 
¶2. The Finnish campaign is part of a broader, EU-wide 
consumer information project, initiated by the European 
Community's Anti-Counterfeiting Customs Action Plan. 
Finnish Customs, inspired by a Canadian campaign a year 
ago, developed the Finnish counterfeit campaign, and has 
made the material available to other EU countries. The 
material is available in Finnish, Swedish and English. 
Finland's most famous rock group, Lordi, designed the most 
popular poster which has a photo of the monster-rock, Kiss- 
inspired lead singer growling about the inferior quality of 
pirated cds. All EU countries may use the posters, 
including the Lordi poster, in their own campaigns. The 
Finnish material can easily be modified (language and 
picture) to fit any country. 
 
¶3. All six posters have forthright messages to consumers, 
such as "buy pirated goods - support drug traffic". Other 
posters remind people of the threat posed by counterfeit 
products to, for example, health and jobs in Finland 
("gambling with your health" "selling counterfeit products 
is illegal"). 
 
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Cooperation Good between Copyright Industry and Customs 
--------------------------------------------- ------ 
 
¶4. The Helsinki-based Copyright Information and Anti-Piracy 
Center (CIAPC) is a trade association representing all of 
the copyright industries in Finland. In 1999, CIAPC signed 
a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Finnish Customs to 
make cooperation in combating piracy more official and to 
enable a more thorough sharing of information between these 
organizations, according to Antti Kotilainen Director of 
CIAPC. CIAPC collaborated closely with Customs on its 
current campaign. 
 
¶5. CIAPC has also produced anti-piracy awareness campaigns 
and educational packages for all junior high and elementary 
schools in Finland (age 13-16 and age 11-12). The packages 
include a teaching kit, slide shows, which can be 
downloaded by teachers, and a comic book for students. 
 
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STATS 
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¶6. In 2002 Finland was one of the largest EU pirate markets 
with nearly four million imported pirated discs. The number 
of pirated copies imported to Finland fell after the 
amendment of Finland's Copyright Law (effective January 
2006), which prohibited all import of pirated products - 
zero tolerance. Today the situation is clearly better, 700 
000 pirated discs were imported to Finland in 2006, 
according to CIAPC. This decline in pirated discs was 
offset by a nine percent increase in the sales volume of 
music recordings in Finland, especially at sales points in 
south eastern Finland (Kotka and Lappeenranta), a border 
region close to the most pirated copy markets in Russia 
(mainly Vyborg and St. Petersburg). 
 
------------------------------------ 
Finns Buy Counterfeit Household Items 
------------------------------------- 
 
¶7. In Finland, most counterfeits are household items rather 
than luxury goods and their high quality often makes 
identification impossible without technical expertise. The 
increasing use of the internet to sell counterfeits (mainly 
medicines) increases the challenges customs officials face. 
The number of counterfeit medicine consignments caught by 
Finnish Customs is estimated at 600 in 2006 compared to 
only 68 in 2002. 
 
¶8. According to the most recent statistics, 87 000 
 
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counterfeit products worth 3.96 million euros were seized 
by Finnish Customs in January-June 2006, compared with 1.6 
million counterfeit products worth 28 million euros in 
¶2005. The drop is explained by the fact that transport 
routes have been redirected from Finland to less strictly 
controlled routes (mainly Latvia and Lithuania). 
 
WARE