Information Policy and Law

Overview:

The Dominican Republic ranks quite high in regards to piracy, although steps are being taken so that the country is heading in the right direction in regards to information policy and law.

Highlights:

On July 28, 2004, President Hipolito Mejia approved the Law on Access to Information, which allows any person “the right to demand information in any form from national and municipal bodies, state enterprices, and private organizations that receive public money to conduct state business.” Page 65 and 66 of the document Freedom of Information Around the World 2006 also states that there are twelve exemptions for information, including such items as health and public security, items that would harm an administrative investigation and items that would invade personal privacy. The Regulations for this law were enacted in February 2005, however there is conflicting information that although the Regulations state that no reason is necessary, the law is actually requiring reasons to access the information. Interestingly, the United States ranked behind the Dominican Republic in the 2006 Annual Press Freedom Index. (12)

On bsa.org, the page for the Dominican Republic is still under construction. This alone tells us that the Dominican Republic is not a leader in regards to Information Policy and Law. (13)

In regards to piracy, the International Intellectual Property Alliance most recently published a report in 2001 on the Dominican Republic . A new copyright law was adopted in the Dominican Republic in 2000, replacing the last version, which was published in 1986. In 2000, $12.3 million in U.S. dollars was lost in business software applications because of piracy in the Dominican Republic . This was up $5 million to 1999. Revenue losses from piracy of software applications account for more than 50% of the estimated trade losses in total. Entertainment software piracy resulted in a loss of $6 million in 2000. Together, this loss total $18.3 million U.S. dollar, and accounted for almost the entire trade loss due to piracy. As of 2000, the Dominican Republic was still on the Priority Watch List due to the piracy issues, as it was still at 70%. The report states that heavy fines of up to $180,000 U.S. and up to 3 years of jail could be possibilities if the new law is broken, however, there is no evidence stating that this is truly being enforced. (14)

Currently, the level of piracy in the Dominican Republic is 70% on business software applications, and the country is still on the piracy watch list.