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Photo: Anastasiya Vikhrova, MosNews.com
U.S. Companies Lose Billions of Dollars Annually to Russian Piracy
Created: 23.02.2005 13:37 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 13:47 MSK
MosNews
The losses incurred by U.S. software, film, and music companies as a result of pirated materials distributed in Russia grossed at $1.7 million last year, Russias Culture and Mass Communication Minister has announced.
With Russias record of intellectual property rights violations one of the worst in the world, on Tuesday Culture Minister Alexander Sokolov signed a cooperation agreement with a number of social organizations working towards protecting intellectual property rights.
In the sphere of intellectual property rights we are dealing with a well thought-out system of evading the law, Russias RBC news agency quoted Sokolov as saying after the signing.
He called for social organizations to join efforts to fight piracy, and noted a vacuum in legislation protecting intellectual property.
Meanwhile, according to the firm Macrovision, losses by international DVD producers alone from Russian piracy were as much as $4 billion.
Russia is among the 15 countries negatively affecting U.S.-based intellectual property, according to a report by U.S. trade representative Robert Zoellick. Improving its intellectual property record is one of the issues linked to Russias joining the World Trade Organization.
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MONEY
MosNews
Igor Artemyev, the head of Russias Anti-Monopoly Service, said on Tuesday, May 24, that he would delay the approval of a deal between Frances Total oil and gas giant and Russias independent gas firm Novatek until after Novateks planned initial share placement (IPO). Total has been trying to buy 25 percent of Novateks shares since last year.
FEATURE
RITA STORM
MosNews
Russians would rather deal with those pesky STDs than with those pesky condoms and those pesky STD tests. Lacking clear and convincing information on safe sex, many prefer to fall back on contraception methods that date back to the Dawn of Time but havent been improved since then. As a result, many are in for unpleasant surprises.
INTERVIEW
MIKHAIL BERGER
Yezhednevny Zhurnal
Following a U.S. Senate Committees allegations that Russian officials were involved in an illegal oil deal with Saddam Hussein as part of the oil for food program, many of those implicated denied the accusations. Sergei Isakov of the Russian Engineering Co., a firm that was also mentioned in the report, says that his firm was the one getting all that extra oil.
COLUMN
FYODOR LUKYANOV
Gazeta.ru
The current catastrophe in Central Asia � from Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan � is only the result of an experiment gone wrong, when Russia and other world powers left the region to its own devices. Now in the throes of violence and chaos, the region is exhibiting a spring mechanism: the harsher the dictatorship, the more chaos and bloodshed.
COMMENTARY
ANNA ARUTUNYAN
The Moscow News
With the success of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine, its no wonder that Russias liberal opposition, having failed to get into parliament in the 2003 elections, is pinning its hopes on ever more frequent street protests. But whether they are Kremlin spawns or independent youth groups supporting Mikhail Khodorkovsky, a major piece for any successful revolution seems to be lacking.
IMAGES
FrontAIDS, an activist organization, rallied against the governments position on AIDS on May 14. As part of an unauthorized rally, dozens of FrontAIDS activists gathered in front of the Health Ministry, chained themselves to the building, and attempted to block off traffic on nearby Neglinnaya Street � all to draw attention to the AIDS issue.
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