VZCZCXRO8389
OO RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHTH #1456/01 2911625
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 171625Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY ATHENS
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 2655
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHIK/AMCONSUL THESSALONIKI PRIORITY 1959

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ATHENS 001456 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EUR/SE - IGOODMAN 
DEPT FOR EEB/TPP/IPE - JURBAN 
DEPT PASS TO USDOC - HILLEARY SMITH 
DEPT PASS TO USTR - LESLIE YANG 
DEPT PASS TO USPTO - MSMITH 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON ETRD KIPR GR PREL
SUBJECT: GREECE AND IPR -- VISIT BY USTR 
 
REF: ATHENS 01360 
 
ATHENS 00001456  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
Summary: 
--------- 
 
¶1.  (SBU) During the visit of Leslie Yang (USTR's Director 
for Europe), Government of Greece (GoG) officials outlined 
current and planned efforts to improve IPR protection and 
enforcement.  Yang also met with Greek industry 
representatives including: Business Software Alliance (BSA), 
the Association of Greek Producers of Phonograms (IFPI), and 
the Motion Picture Association (EPOE).  The industry 
representatives re-iterated the key points echoed during 
meetings with Department of Commerce Hilleary Smith as 
reported in reftel.  Specifically, industry continued to 
stress that it wanted concrete results from the GoG, 
especially from the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) and the 
newly created working groups as well as stronger enforcement 
in the judiciary and enforcement components.  In a separate 
meeting following Yang's visit, Hellenic Copyright Office 
(OPI) Director Irini Stamatoudi briefed EconOff on GoG's 
efforts and said that IMC would help, also citing a new 
inter-governmental database of IPR infringers to track 
repeat-offenders.  Whether there will be significant concrete 
improvements in IPR protection and enforcement remains to be 
seen, including whether the IMC will take effective action. 
End Summary. 
 
Industry Still Wants to See Results 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) As reported in reftel cable in DOC Smith's visit, 
industry representatives repeated to Yang that they would 
like to see concrete results from the GoG.  Arhondoula 
Papapanagiotou from BSA stressed that the tax police should 
execute more raids and should publicize their results. 
(reftel)  As for GoG's efforts on IPR protection and 
enforcement, she said they did not get the impression that a 
working group was empowered to take concrete steps.  IFPI 
representatives including Irene Tsiliri and Panos 
Theofanellis who had met with Hilleary Smith told Yang that 
the judicial element needed strengthening and that 
administrative fines not being imposed by police.  IFPI also 
expressed great concern regarding changes to the Greek law 
being considered by a Legislative Committee.  In addition, 
IFPI railed against the GoG's efforts thus far, and commented 
that they were not getting any political support from the 
GoG. (reftel)  In the meeting with EPOE, the representative 
Jim Valsamides highlighted lack of public education/outreach 
and the need to improve the judicial education.  Despite 
industry's attempts to give a prioritized short wish-list, he 
doubted whether the GoG would be able to keep a consistent 
approach to addressing IPR protection and enforcement.  All 
three associations discussed difficulties in getting 
cooperation from ISPs in combating internet piracy. 
 
 
Special Tax Police (YPEE): Taking Off the Gloves 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Special Tax Police (YPEE) head Marios Tsakas 
detailed the results of the five previous waves of audit 
letters sent to companies requesting documentation of their 
software licenses.  Tsakas said the process was going well, 
but that there was a mixed response from companies.  For 
those companies that did not reply, Tsakas said he sent out 
small teams to investigate on a sporadic basis.  Although he 
did not have the capacity to check all the companies, most 
companies tended to comply for fear of getting a more a 
thorough audit of all their accounting books.  If a violation 
is discovered, Tsakas said that companies get an 
administrative fine of 900 euros for each illegal software 
multiplied per user.  In addition to the fine, the companies 
are obligated to pay fees to obtain the license for each 
operating user. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Regarding the publishing of statistics, Tsakas said 
that his organization planned to include more information on 
the YPEE website although some numbers could not be included 
due to their confidentiality.  Overall, YPEE shared a 
positive working relationship with the Business Software 
Alliance (BSA), especially the letter campaign to tackle 
illegal software piracy.  Nevertheless, it continues to be a 
struggle to enforce IPR for illegally downloaded music.  He 
added that YPEE had a difficult time addressing illegal 
 
ATHENS 00001456  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
software in the public sector as each minister should be held 
accountable for violations in their ministries. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Hellenic Copyright Office (OPI) Director Irini 
Stamatoudi stressed to EconOff in a September 30 meeting that 
YPEE was "extremely effective" and sent representatives to 
participate in all GoG IPR-related meetings.  Although 
Stamatoudi said she has not yet met with YPEE's new head, she 
said he had a strong reputation and believed he would do a 
good job.  In spite of the positive cooperation with YPEE, 
Stamatoudi added YPEE could not tackle IPR alone and needed 
help from the Ministries of Interior and Justice. 
 
Judicial Education 
------------------ 
 
¶6.  (SBU) President of the Judges Academy in Athens Takis 
Pikramenos specializes in administrative, not IP, law.  But 
by discussing current education at the Academy with Yang and 
EconOff, the idea of IPR enforcement seminars directly 
following IP sessions at the Academy emerged.  Such seminars 
could be in a roundtable-format with European interlocutors 
who share a similar legal system.  Stamatoudi mentioned 
separately that IPR seminars could be tacked on to an 
upcoming seminar hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
(MFA) on money-laundering and trafficking.  She thought this 
might be a good way to give this topic some urgency and give 
judges the opportunity to ask in-depth questions, especially 
those who work in specialized units that handle IPR cases. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) MFA representative Christina Argiropoulou 
underlined that the IMC was dedicated to developing a 
long-term IPR strategy, but part of the problem involved the 
context (reftel). "The problem with the Greek justice system 
is that we have to be mindful of the independence of judges 
and that the Greek Government does not have the authority to 
impose certain mandates on the judges," she explained. 
Argiropoulou said the plan was to sensitize the judges to the 
issue in an "indirect and discreet" manner.  The working 
groups were working on a three-pillar strategy: 
inter-government statistics, enforcement by the judges, and 
public awareness.  In order to bring about concrete change in 
IPR protection and enforcement, Argiropoulou said the working 
groups, thus far, have two concentrations--one group will 
focus on "operational" issues of enforcement, the other group 
will review Greek law to see if changes in the law are needed 
to improve IPR protection and enforcement." (reftel) 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Argiropoulou said SecGen Skylakakis (IMC Chair) 
would like to have a meeting with the private sector at some 
point.  (Comment: It is still not clear how the IMC will take 
into account private sector input.  End Comment.)  She added 
there would be meetings of the working group and the IMC 
before the end of the month.  Argiropoulou said that the GoG 
is taking steps to combat piracy because of loss of money, 
not because of the Special 301 Watch List listing.  She noted 
the GoG had received USG input in the Special 301 initiative 
paper.  Yang explained how the USG hoped to use a Special 301 
initiative as a vehicle for increased engagement between the 
USG and the GoG. 
 
Getting Interest-Groups on the Same Page 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  (SBU) In separate meetings, Argiropoulou and Stamatoudi 
admitted the challenges involved in getting Internet Service 
Providers (ISPs) to shut down the accounts of IPR infringers. 
 Stamatoudi described how OPI had launched an open forum on 
their website to get public input on the role of ISPs in 
combating internet piracy, but it resulted in attracting 
remarks against the proposal.  In spite of assurances from 
the GoG, most ISPs refused to take action unless there was 
specific legislative requirement.  There was no political 
will, given strong privacy data laws and heightened Greek 
sensitivities to the issue, to bring about significant 
changes at this time; nevertheless, Stamatoudi said she was 
examining legislation in other European countries that could 
provide examples with an aim to amend current copyright law. 
 
¶10. (SBU) Stamatoudi warned that industry needed to have a 
more cohesive approach to approaching IPR.  She stressed that 
there were often disconnects between the groups and that it 
was difficult at times to facilitate constructive dialogue on 
the issue.  For example, she pointed to the case of 
establishing a inter-governmental database, housed in OPI, to 
 
ATHENS 00001456  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
keep track of IPR violators and repeat-offenders.  The 
Association of Greek Producers of Phonograms (IFPI) agreed to 
the initiative, while EPOE, the local representatives for the 
Motion Picture Association did not.  Stamatoudi also insisted 
that neither BSA nor IFPI had the appropriate licenses from 
the Ministry of Culture to act as official representatives 
for their respective industries, but she continued to meet 
with them to discuss their needs.  IFPI told us that they had 
applied and received a one-time license to operate.  In the 
meeting with Stamatoudi she complained that the IFPI ran to 
the police when they had information and did not keep OPI in 
the loop on all the reports, yet the police had told her that 
they rarely had the complete information needed to make an 
arrest. 
 
Collaboration is Good, Still Needs Improvement 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶11. (SBU)  Director General of Customs Nikolas Vernadakis 
maintained that relations with the MFA and the Ministry of 
Culture were quite good and that they have achieved 
considerable progress.  Vernadakis commented that the next 
step will be the creation of an inter-agency database that 
captures the data of the IPR infringers and will be created 
in close collaboration with the private sector.  He said that 
some of his employees had attended a special training session 
by Nike and had found it useful to identify counter-feit 
goods.  In response to FCS officer suggestion that the World 
Customs Organization would be happy to provide to trainers, 
Vernadakis welcomed the idea.  Similarly, he thought industry 
could work with the customs and police forces more 
effectively to identify pirated goods such as CDs and DVDs. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) Despite Vernadakis' positive spin, Stamatoudi 
reported separately that the problem was not the police, but 
the municipality officials who were not allowed to carry a 
weapon.  "They are not effective and they need to be 
empowered," she said.  She recommended that the municipality 
officials go with special units from the tax police to 
enforce the law.  These types of "mixed raids" would have a 
better impact, she said. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶13. (SBU) The newly-created Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) 
and working groups were lauded by all interlocutors; however, 
there needs to be concrete results tied to the creation of 
these groups to support the GoG's back-slapping on this 
issue.  Also outstanding is to what extent the IMC and 
working groups will take into account industry input.  End 
Comment. 
SPECKHARD