The Spanish Patents and Trade Marks Office has launched a website which aims to create awareness among consumers about piracy as an economic and social problem.

According to this site (accessible in English here),

“Since 1980, trade mark counterfeiting and piracy of intellectual and industrial property rights has grown significantly. It now affects a wide range of sectors, as it appears at different stages of the product life cycle, not only during sale to the public, but also during manufacture, distribution and so on.

There are many causes for this, including, among others, the appearance of high technologies which facilitate the reproduction of different products and the general belief among consumers that this does not harm anybody. Nevertheless, the consequences of these phenomena are considerable -- the International Chamber of Commerce estimates the resulting annual losses at 600 billion dollars. (…)

The set of illicit activities commonly known as piracy and their growing effect on day to day life is reflected by the data shown above and has prompted the creation of a stable framework of collaboration between the various public policies aimed at taking action against these practices. These practices, in addition to breaching legally recognized intellectual and industrial property rights, produce damaging effects on a nation's economy (such as loss of tax revenue, loss of confidence in operators and a decrease in investment as well as innovation and creative work) and pose a risk to consumers particularly since this phenomenon has spread to sectors such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, toys, aircraft components and car parts) with the subsequent damages to holders of property rights and to the market itself (affected companies' loss of competitiveness, etc.), to consumers, to enterprise, to society (decrease in job creation and job losses, etc.) and to the State".