U.S. Congress Fights Russian Pirates
// Intellectual property
Hearings on the theft of intellectual property ended in the U.S. Congress on Tuesday. Eric Schwartz, a vice president of the International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA), called on the congressmen not to grant permission for Russia's accession to the WTO and to impose trade sanctions on Russian exports, because Russia was not protecting intellectual property. However, the congressmen made it clear that the U.S. authorities were more concerned about the political component of American–Russian relations than the successes of the Russian law enforcement agencies in the battle against pirates.
The situation with the protection of intellectual property in Russia is one of the most critical questions in talks between Moscow and Washington on Russia's accession to the WTO. According to Kommersant's information, President Bush also raised this question at a meeting with President Putin in Moscow on May 9. The IIPA is in the forefront when it comes to accusing Russia of piracy. In February of last year, the alliance estimated losses from the actions of Russian pirates at $1 billion and demanded that the Office of the United States Trade Representative impose comparable trade sanctions on Russian exports. Specifically, the IIPA demanded Russia's exclusion from the list of countries in the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP), which could deal a serious blow to Russian exporters, who annually export goods worth $430 million to the United States (including forged titanium, aluminum, hydrocarbons, ferrochrome, and vanadium) and save an average of 15 percent, or about $64 million, on tariffs. However, last year, it appeared that Russian officials from the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade were able to convince the Americans that Russia was waging war on piracy. In October 2004, the IIPA again demanded that the United States Trade Representative consider the advisability of Russia's participation in the GSP.
IIPA Vice President Eric Schwartz made a speech yesterday to the Congressional Legal Affairs Committee dealing with the impending decision of the Office of the United States Trade Representative in June on the GSP with respect to Russia. Schwartz urged Acting Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Victoria Espinel and the congressmen not to grant permission for Russia's accession to the WTO and, of course, to reconsider its participation in the GSP until the Kremlin actually started using the law against pirates. In particular, Schwartz said that audio, video, and book piracy in Russia in the last five years had resulted in losses of $6 billion to the copyright industry in the United States. He didn't explain to the congressmen how this figure was derived, but the IIPA was probably using last year's calculation system. At that time, American rights holders calculated losses of $1 billion by multiplying the circulation of pirated products of American companies sold in Russia by the cost of the legal product in the United States. Matt Gerson, a senior vice president of Universal Music Group, Inc. (UMG), agreed with Schwartz, saying that “the number of factories producing pirated copies of CDs and DVDs increased from 28 in 2003 to 34 in 2005,” and output, from 330 million to 448 million disks. In the opinion of hearing participants, the reason for this increase was that most of the pirate factories were located in secure facilities, and the Russian authorities' lack of reaction to their existence angered the IIPA and the United States Trade Representative. As IIPA President Eric Smith told Kommersant, “political will is needed to close these factories, because the people behind them have a lot of influence in Russia.” Finally, Bonnie Richardson, a senior vice president of the Motion Picture Association of America, took a swipe at Russian pirates, telling the congressmen that “without President Putin's direct intervention, it will be impossible to solve the problem of intellectual theft.” However, Schwartz doubted Putin's will to fight piracy. “A year ago at a meeting of the presidents of Russia and the United States, Vladimir Putin promised to tackle this problem in earnest,” he said. “Twelve months have passed and we don't see any results.”
Despite fiery speeches by American businessmen, Espinel made it clear to them that no immediate sanctions against Russia were expected. Espinel also told the congressmen that talks between the United States and Russia on the latter's accession to the WTO would not only depend on the decision of the United States Trade Representative. “The State Department, the Department of Commerce, and the Department of Justice are making these decisions along with us,” she explained. Democratic Congressman Howard Berman, who had questioned Espinel about this, explained to Kommersant that it was a matter of the political component of American–Russian relations. Berman refused to name the political factors that were influencing the administration's decision, saying “you and I know very well what they are.”
Dmitry Sidorov, Washington; Aleksandr Voronov
All the Article in Russian as of May 19, 2005
|
