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Russia Put on Priority Watch List for Copyright Piracy
The Bush administration released Monday a list of 12 nations placed on the priority watch list for continuous copyright violations. Russia, China and 10 other countries are faulted for the failure to protect from piracy the U.S. producers of music, movies and other copyrighted material.
The report of the U.S. Department of Commerce promised permanent control over Russia’s actions aimed at strengthening the copyright protection, and therefore, executing commitments under the WTO bilateral agreement with the United States.
Russia is the second in the U.S. list of copyright piracy. China holds the first position, while Argentina is the third.
Days earlier, a group of world corporations that are members of BASCAP called Russia one of the leaders in copyright piracy.
For Russia, exactly the copyright piracy is widely seen a key hurdle en route to the World Trade Organization. And widespread media piracy is of particular concern to the world community. The annual sales of pirate CDs are estimated at no less than 2.26 million rubles for Moscow alone. The counterfeit production surged 30 percent in the country during past two years, according to IFPI.
In a counter-piracy effort, Russia’s Economic Development and Trade Ministry shaped two weeks ago four initiatives that are being agreed on for conformity with the laws. The first idea is to establish separate responsibility for releasing the product before its actual launch and regard it a qualifying indicator that aggravates a crime. The second proposal is to introduce responsibility for shooting films in cinemas, the third one is to improve procedures to determine the size of counterfeit deliveries and the fourth proposal relates to introducing independent responsibility for retail sales of counterfeit product.
www.kommersant.com
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