Unauthorized public performance of films in hotels, bars, restaurants, discotheques and other tourist locations is a seasonal problem. Enforcement of the Copyright Act is lacking. The Government has failed to develop the anti-piracy stickers required under the 1993 amendments and it has not prepared the regulations necessary to implement this program. Instead, motion picture anti-piracy protection is achieved primarily through the voluntary window legislation, which protects a limited number of titles in theatrical release by prohibiting the concurrent distribution of these titles on video. The annual list of titles created under this law has aided the police in the identification and confiscation of pirate tapes.
Difficulties also exist in bringing prosecutions and obtaining sentences.
The courts generally impose low penalties, with little or no deterrent effect. Judges and prosecutors must still be convinced to consider intellectual property infringement a serious crime. After the 1993 amendments were enacted, there was a noticeable drop in cassette piracy, and a big increase in legitimate sales by Cypriot and Greek recording artists. There have also been a growing number of CDs imported into Cyprus from Eastern Europe, accounting for an estimated one-fifth of the Cypriot CD market. Estimates for 1996 are not available.