Intellectual Property rights plagued by Inadequate Protection; Copyright piracy is a publicly-approved practice in Cyprus
At a time when Cyprus wants to evolve from a jurisdiction where only taxes are collected on intellectual property (IP) to a fully-fledged international centre where businesses are encouraged to create and protect their assets, it is a shame that the authorities are incapable of protecting local IP rights.
What’s more, some public services are in violation of IP rights as they subscribe to media services that infringe on copyright, without any protection provided to the creator or owner of those intellectual rights.
Such is the case of the product you hold in your hands.
Ever since the Financial Mirror was launched nearly 20 years, we have tried to maintain a standard of ethics in publishing, within the spirit of what has in recent years been coined as “Good Corporate Governance”. We have subscribed to authoritative news sources, hired good quality journalists and commissioned reports or analyses from independent experts and freelance reporters. This all entails a capital expense, which in our case has been an invaluable investment in trying to provide high-quality reporting and critical think-pieces, regardless of whether we agreed or disagreed with the views therein.
But in recent years our investment has diminished due to lack of protection of IP rights. Government services and large companies in Cyprus have slashed their media buying costs by hiring unauthorised newspaper clipping services, which may seem innocent at first, but in effect violate every copyright law there is. Is this how Cyprus hopes to attract and protect the registration of IP rights from other countries? Is IP safe in Cyprus or will copyright, trademarks, servicemarks, patents and the like be abused.
Ironically, the list of companies and organisations that abuse Financial Mirror content includes institutions that make a big fuss over protecting their own original material and try to prosecute those who infringe on that copyright. The list (so far) includes three banks, a global software company, a government ministry, three municipalities, three government-owned organisations, two political parties, a leading football club, retail store operators, etc.
The Financial Mirror reserves its legal rights to protect its own Intellectual Property and those in violation will be subject to the law. Name and shame, anyone?
The Publisher
