WTO aspirations may finally convince Russians to better police piracy

WTO aspirations may finally convince Russians to better police piracy
Although they've survived years of legal battles with copyright holders, credit card companies, and international pressure, Russian websites selling copyrighted music without the copyright holder's permission may finally shut down in a bid for the country to gain entrance into the World Trade Organization.

Sites like the now infamous Allofmp3.com do pay royalties to a Russian licensing body. Unfortunately, that body isn't sanctioned by music labels to collect royalties for them, which explains why music can be sold at a fraction of what mainstream stores like iTunes would pay in royalties. In the past, Allofmp3 has successfully defended their licensing practices in Russian courts, which do recognize the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society (ROMS) as a legitimate royalty collection agency.



That hasn't stopped the music industry from applying pressure on world governments, especially the United States, to put pressure of their own on Russia to crack down on the problem. By joining the WTO Russia would make it easier to do business from within the country with other 150 WTO members. This gives them ample incentive to take piracy seriously. The question now is whether they'll be able to back up a tough stance with effective enforcement. Until now they haven't been successful.

Source: Cnet News

Written by: Rich Fiscus @ 18 Oct 2007 23:11
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  • 4 comments
  • nobrainer

    Great to see America holds the world to ransom because of file sharing, block entry into the wto and make hundreds of thousands of ordinary Russian people suffer because of it, this seems fair to me. If it wasn't bad enough that the wto favours america giving huge subsidies to their farmers while farmers in third world countries cannot compete simply pack up shop and have to move to the cities which drives down wages further, but i suppose this favours america again because they have even more workers to fill them sweat shops slave labour type places like what's happening in mexico and the north american union will exploit it even more, wait surly this is worse than ip theft, obviously exploiting humans is less on the agenda than ip violations!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H65f3q_Lm9U

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vuBo4E77ZXo

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIO-tCPSfHA

    19.10.2007 03:26 #1

  • duckNrun

    This is NOT about file sharing in any way shape or form.

    What this is about is the media companies via their proxy the US Govt. punishing soveirgn nations who deem fit to make laws for their own citizens and businesses that run counter to the US Media companies wishes and desires.

    This about the US threatening a soveirgn nation refused entry into a global trade organization if it doesn't change it's laws to better suit the interests of US media conglomerates.

    As an American I rue the day that other countries use the same tactic to try to coerge OUR government into changing it's laws to better reflect said outside countries laws. Imagine what Iran, Pakistan,Saudi Arabia, China or some other 'less than free' govt would wish to see changed in US society.

    Absolutely shameful and the space in Hell becomes increasingly more crowded everyday with souls of those who perpetrate these tactics.

    19.10.2007 07:06 #2

  • ZippyDSM

    Its funy since the US dose not make anythign anymore we are still somehow consider a world power, all we do is consume,we have enough of a army to put up a good fight for the frist 5 min of a world war but nothign much past that unless we launch the nukes....I guess tis the nukes that make us a world military power... mmmmmmmm

    19.10.2007 12:52 #3

  • borhan9

    I have a feeling this is not going to last it will just be a temp thing and then they will go back to the way they ran things before.

    23.10.2007 17:50 #4

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