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RIAA Sets Their Sights on Russia
Conor Turton writes to tell us that the RIAA has set their sights on Russia for their newest push into anti-piracy. A recent bill was sponsored in the Senate to deny Russia's entrance into the WTO (among other things) if they did not take major action against piracy. From the press release: "The effective protection of American intellectual property has been sorely lacking in Russia. This resolution is significant because it expresses the will of the U.S. Congress that Russia must take effective action against those who would steal America's knowledge-intensive intellectual property-based goods and services. We must not enter into political arrangements with countries ill-prepared to adequately protect our greatest economic assets."
Hummm.....Why did this never come up when China was being admitted into the WTO???
AllOfMp3.com is, arguably, completely legal within Russian law; which is how it survived a police investigation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allofmp3
40 billion is 0.363636 % of 11 trillion. I don't think they were talking about the record industry alone, though.
They recently agreed to remove all agricultural (export?) subsidies by 2013 or something like that.
u ral+subsidies+2013
http://news.google.com/news?q=wto+remove+agricult
So, yes, they like to ignore the WTO, but when the threatened sanctions were large enough, even the U.S. caved.
BTW, this is considered a fairly significant win for the WTO
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/whatis_e/10be
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
I've been to both China and Russia and I must say that it was *far* more apparent in Russia.
There were shops along Nevsky Prospekt in St. Petersburg, the main shopping area, that openly sold pirated movies, software and music. Every underground crosswalk had kiosks selling CDs full of stuff and the police neither noticed or cared. I heard that at that time, 2001, there were no real laws against it.
(This may have changed in the last few years, I'm sure someone could confirm.)
In Beijing, I saw one seller of what I assumed were pirated movies. Just one at an open market on the east side, along side the people selling tiger claws and other horrifying animal parts for traditional medicines.
I really saw nothing to indicate that they had nearly as broad a culture of "piracy" as Russia did.
-- My Weblog.
Wouldn't Mandarin be a better choice?
I don't know how many of you have actually been to Russia so this might not make as much sense...
Russia has so many other problems going on right now that they couldn't give a crap about IP law. How can you have IP law when you have police who shake down people because they look like they're "foriegn" and they KNOW they can get cash from them easily. How can anyone care about IP law when you can buy immigration papers in ANY train station or from a vendor in the subway (yes, believe it or not, there are millions of people TRYING to get into Russia).
Plus, with the economic conditions the way they are, you aren't going to get a Russian Citizen to pay $20 for a CD. They'd rather eat or spend that $20 bribing someone so they can live their life without someone giving them crap.
The media companies inside of Russia accept this as fact and they've learned how to work within the system. They add features and price their product competitively with the pirated stuff - and people buy it believe it or not.
What the Cartels like the MPAA and the RIAA need to learn is that the market isn't going to be restrained by their cartel. The Black Market will always win - especially in Russia.
You want Mandarin. My wife and I will be taking such a course this January.
Taiwan isn't on the list of signatures to the Berne Convention either. While Taiwan's government is far from perfect, I think we're doing a lot better than countries like China, Turkey, South Africa, etc.
I lived/worked in St Petersburg for almost a year (I'm originally from .NZ). On the main street in St Petersburg, there are shops that are just like any other music/video store, totally professional shop fittings and overall image - except everything they sell in there is pirated. And it's extremely well pirated - the Russians are masters at copying things, and some of their pirated CDs are hard to distinguish - I'm talking professionally pressed (not burned) CDs, colour CD inlays that have been professionally printed (not colour-photocopied). If you didn't know about the piracy issue in Russia, you could be forgiven for thinking these were legit products.
Anyway, getting back to the topic of the parent post, I can also vouch for a fairly strong anti-American feeling in Russia (among other places I've been), and resentment at America's foreign policy. I don't think the average Russian is just going to set down and let corporate America steamroll their way of life. Russia already is trying to clamp down on piracy, but with a corrupt government infrastructure, all it takes is the bribing of some official, and the problem gets ignored. At any rate, if the piracy problem is to be stamped out, it has to come from within. I'd expect a very large backlash if it was seen to be America imposing their laws on Russian people.
For the most part, China does a good job at funneling tourists and foreigners into certain areas. I haven't been to Russia, but after visiting China I can tell you that you'll be shut out of most areas simply because you look differently, ESPECIALLY if you can't speak the language/local dialect. I've been to shopping areas in the Beijing area where mini-mall sized areas sold bootleg/pirated movies, software, music and hacked video game consoles with uniformed police officers standing around these kiosks openly.
Please remember that the US refused to sign the Berne Convention for 103 years, and didn't sign it until March 1th 1989.
It wasn't so much that the US refused to sign as that the government couldn't sign. The Berne convention was incompatible with US law until 1988. The US has been a member of UCC for over 50 years, though.
-h-
knowledge-intensive intellectual property-based goods and services
Since when does Britney Spears and the rest qualify as this?
Ryosen
One man's "Troll, +1" is another man's "Insightful, +1".
Exactly right. You foreigners probably don't know, but we already had our share of "wars against piracy". Discs bulldozed on national TV and whatsuch.
There actually was a time (about 7-8 years ago) when pirated discs disappeared from the retail for several months. Unsurprisingly, it didn't stick. Piracy is a big business here, controlled by OUR mobs, it's not just some pop and mom CD-RW operation. So our government will generate some hogwash for RIAA and GW Bush and everything will stay the same.
He is about correct. Last time I was in the area I picked up a boot-leg Lord of The Rings. The bootlegs were everywhere, the actual movie was not. There were some movies priced comparatively, and people seemed to be willing to pay an extra $2 for the quality guarantee of the real one and extra features (some of the bootlegs are of very poor quality).
Computers allow humans to make mistakes at the fastest speeds known, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns
However coprporates already running prisons in US and some other contries in the world.
from Google cache
Napoleon's invasion of Russia started on June 24, 1812 and ended on November 28, 1812.
Not sure what anyone could have against San Marino or its government. Or why anyone wouldn't want to live there, it's a very beautiful little collection of villages. You do know where it is, right?
Unless of course if you were Swedish, since the longest state of war (technically speaking) in European history existed between San Marino and Sweden, only to end in about 1992.
I've always loved this imagery, a tiny group of villages in the mountains of Italy fighting a country of 8 million famous for their very safe cars, social democracy, Abba and nice pine furniture.
Hail Freedonia!
This coming from a country that stole IP property like say railways and a major plethora of industrial related technologies from Britain.
Buggrit - anything sounding this good has to turn out as a myth.
7 2835
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=4
Yeah, arrogance was the first thing I thought of - "We must not enter into political arrangements with countries ill-prepared to adequately protect our greatest economic assets."
Dear United States and RIAA: Fuck you, we're still trying to feed and shelter our people and curb mob violence and create jobs to fight unemployment. We respect your copyrights; it's just that we have a lot more shit going down that we need to address at the moment.
sig?
Let's not forget stealth fighter tech.
Our stealth aircraft tech depends on Russian research paper.
Mebbe Moscow should start demanding some royalties.
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.