The Yugoslavian radio station and online news source B92.net reports that the Serbian authorities have proposed harser penalities for crimes that are affliated with intellectual properties.
Zoran Djokic, deputy head of Serbia's criminal police, said today that higher fines, prison sentences of between three months and three years and confiscation of equipment and product would be more appropiate.
Zoran Djokic said that the maximum penalty was a year imprisonment and police had no authority to impound equipment for duplicating CDs or pirate CDs themselves. Djokic was announcing a police initiative for amendments to the Criminal Code. Local courts, he said, usually imposed a fine of 10,000 dinars (about 160 euros) for illegal copying. |
The police proposal is for prison sentences of between three months and three years and confiscation of equipment and product. The amendments would apply to all media, including publishing, music and video production and software. It was estimated that Serbia was losing fifty million euros a year in unpaid taxes alone, said Djokic. The regulation of the copyright area is a condition of EU and WTO membership, he added.
Source: B92.net
