Mosfilm and Lenfilm succeeded in proving that Mr. Berov violated their rights by selling DVDs without having any of agreement with the rightholders.
Photo: Yury Martyanov
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Soviet Movies Soar Over US Box Office
Russia’s two leading movie studios, Mosfilm and Lenfilm will get $2.75 million in compensation for copyright infringement in the United States, a U.S. court said Friday in an unprecedented verdict against domestic video pirates. Russian rightholders hope the ruling will help them protect their interests in the United States.
A jury panel ruled on Friday to pay Mosfilm and Lenfilm $2.75 million to compensate for the damages from infringement of their copyright in the United States. The Russian moviemakers and their U.S.-based representative, Close-Up International, were plaintiffs at the trial in the federal district court in Brooklyn. Their lawsuit was aimed at Russian-born Iosif Berov, a former owner of St. Petersburg Book House, a firm well-known in America’s Russian-speaking community as a marketer of Russian language video and audio products.
Mosfilm and Lenfilm succeeded in proving that Mr. Berov violated their rights by selling DVDs without having any of agreement with the studios. The defense says it will appeal the decision.
Officials in Moscow were extremely upbeat about the decision. “The win in the case against Iosif Berov is not just one of the cases,” Mikhail Shvydkoi, head of the Federal Culture and Cinematography Agency, told Kommersant. “It is an important precedent.”
“Piracy against Russian movies is extremely widespread in the U.S., but American authorities have so far preferred to overlook it,” Karen Shakhnazarov, director general of Mosfilm, said.
Analysts also note that Moscow may use the verdict as a diplomatic trump in relations with the United States which has uttered a lot of harsh words about media piracy in Russia.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 18, 2007
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