Piracycost the Brazilian cinema market $102m last year according to figures announcedby the Motion Picture Association (MPA) at the Rio International Film Festival.

Aseminar featuring producer Diler Trindade, Total Filmes' Walkiria Barbosa,producer Luiz Carlos Barreto, the MPA's Marcio Goncalves and attorney MarceloGoyanes heard that piracy was worth over $1bn across the Latin American marketin 2005. Nearly 25% of the Brazilian market is pirated.

However,Brazilis not a major producer of pirated goods, with the majority of pirated DVDs andVCDs coming through Paraguay.The smuggling of black-market film is closely linked to the illicitcross-border trade in weapons, drugs and other counterfeit goods.

Delegatesheard that piracy was not limited to Hollywoodproduct. Local hits God Is Brazilian,directed by Carlos Diegues, and Breno Silveira`s Two Sons Of Francisco, were used as examples of local films thathave appeared on peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.

Althoughsome educational schemes have been launched in Brazil,enforcing anti-piracy legislation was said to be difficult in the Brazilianmarket. "Federal police and the legislature are not efficient," said Barbosa."You can see pirate copies for sale right outside police buildings."

There are around 30 million internet users in Brazil,most of which have dial-up connections. Meanwhile, 15 million homes will have DVDplayers by the end of this year.