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Russia's War on Piracy/Malicious Software
Posted by
Zonk
on Sun Mar 18, 2007 12:39 PM
from the legitimacy-and-furry-hats dept.
from the legitimacy-and-furry-hats dept.
tmk writes "Russian minister Leonid Reiman has announced new legislation to fight software piracy. According to official information the share of pirated software in the Russian Federation decreased in the last years from 90 to 60 percent. Reiman dismissed as a myth the impression that many viruses originate in his country: 'Viruses are written all over the world. Russia is waging a consistent and successful war on malicious software.' Reiman calls for an international organization to fight Internet crime. Last year Russia agreed to take down Allofmp3 after the United States intervened."
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Russia Agrees To Shut Down AllOfMP3.com 550 comments
Pro-SEO writes, "An official document (PDF), dated November 19, summarizes an agreement between the U.S. and Russia in which Russia has agreed to close down AllofMP3.com, and any sites that 'permit illegal distribution of music and other copyright works.' The agreement is posted to the Web site for the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. It summarizes the joint efforts of the two countries to fight content piracy, an issue in which Russia and Eastern Europe figure prominently." From the document: "This agreement sets the stage for further progress on IPR issues in Russia through the next phase of multilateral negotiations, during which the United States and other WTO members will examine Russia's IPR regime."
[+]
RIAA Members Sue Allofmp3.com Over Infringement 323 comments
fair_n_hite_451 writes "To the surprise of no one, several members of the RIAA have filed suit against MediaServices, the operators of Allofmp3.com. The suit was filed for Wednesday, primarily by Arista Records LLC, Warner Bros. Records Inc., Capitol Records Inc. and UMG Recordings. The language of the litigation was very confrontational; The companies claim the site sells millions of songs without paying them 'a dime'. 'The defendant's entire business ... amounts to nothing more than a massive infringement of plaintiffs' exclusive rights under the Copyright Act and New York law.' AllofMp3 has always maintained that a Russian licensing group makes their business legitimate, while the RIAA here claims the organization has no authority to make such a deal."
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RIAA Goes for the Max Against AllofMP3 777 comments
Spad writes "Zeropaid is reporting that as part of its ongoing lawsuit, the RIAA will be seeking the maximum of $150,000 per song for each of the 11 million MP3s downloaded from the Russian AllofMP3.com between June and October last year. This amounts to roughly $1.65 trillion, probably a tad more than AllofMP3 has made in its lifetime. A representative of AllofMP3 stated: 'AllofMP3 understands that several U.S. record label companies filed a lawsuit against Media Services in New York. This suit is unjustified as AllofMP3 does not operate in New York. Certainly the labels are free to file any suit they wish, despite knowing full well that AllofMP3 operates legally in Russia. In the mean time, AllofMP3 plans to continue to operate legally and comply with all Russian laws.'"
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I can't wait (Score:5, Insightful)
"The government will be expected to begin complying by June 1, 2007."
They only agreed to it is so they could get into the WTO.
We'll see how strong their resolve is & how quickly Allofmp3 returns.
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In other words, not soon.
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Allofmp3 (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Allofmp3 (Score:5, Informative)
Walk to the subway station, and there are about 5 vendors who will happily sell you pirated version of any music CD, most DVDs, and almost any software for $5.
While there are plenty of people who download software in the US, you'll have a hard time finding that sort of rampant piracy in the US.
In fact, in Russia, I only remember one store where I could buy non-pirated CDs. The piracy isn't even the same order of magnitude.
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Re:Allofmp3 (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Allofmp3 (Score:5, Interesting)
I actually put that to the test last time I was in Moscow. Was in one of the high end shopping districts near Red Square and walked up to one of the multitudes of CD street vendors. Asked her if she had Borat (which had been released to theaters only a couple of weeks before, and is actually banned in Russia).
Yup, had it. Just under the table. Commanded a premium price though, I seem to remember it was around 300 rubles (about $10).
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I'm amazed at their distribution network. (Score:2)
I think what you really meant to say was "most popular" and "newly released".
The same in China. T
yarr, malicious software must go... (Score:2, Redundant)
Russian Pirates, (Score:2)
Re:yarr, malicious software must go... (Score:5, Funny)
Second, you've got the word 'but' and 'pirates' MUCH too close to each other for my liking.
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Do you know why this yarr phrase is associated with pirates? I see it everywhere on the 'net, but I fail to see the connection. My spontaneous guess is that it comes from some movie, but I really haven't got the faintest idea.
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Eye witness report. (Score:5, Interesting)
I am system administrator in a large nuclear physics institute in Moscow, which is by no mere coincidence a vital part of the Russian internet backbone. Since my day one I've been advocating Linux and free software, and here's the fruit: already about 10% of the institute's workers, including the director himself, use various distributions of Linux [mostly Ubuntu/Debian, Mandriva and Red Hat]. Besides, I'm currently engaged in talks with Sun regarding our migration to Sun Ray, which will run on a customized Debian system.
I believe that if the result will look as I expect it to, the university [it's the largest university in Russia and AFAIK Europe] which we are a significant part of might break off Microsoft crap in toto, although this statement can be considered a pure speculation at this moment.
Re:Eye witness report. (Score:4, Insightful)
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Damn Russian communists!
-
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Is it still so easy when your only source for Linux is the sidewalk vendor and your only access to the net is the Internet
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Imperialism (Score:4, Interesting)
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To keep your domestic cultural product -- your cultural heritage -- from being utterly extinquished by cheap foreign imports?
Copy Wrong [americanheritage.com]
Re:Imperialism (Score:5, Insightful)
How long did it take JK Rowling to earn that much money? Certainly not the amount of time that currently is set in the copyright laws. It's just too long. A lot of great content is locked up by this law, no one in this generation will ever learn of them if this law will still stand.
I'm not against copyright laws, but the ones in place right now are outright ludicrous in regards to amount of time they span.
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As much as I hate copyright and agree with you, the potential benefit of it all could be a massive switch to free software. Let's wait and see (not that I have many hopes...)
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Russia is requesting membership into the WTO and part one of the requirements is to respect international copyright law. They are more than welcome to ignore international copyright laws
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Yup, businesses now get audited and sued (Score:3, Interesting)
What about all the other AllofMyMP3s-like sites? (Score:2, Interesting)
Not to mention the incredibly effective job that street based anti-piracy
Giggleski (Score:3, Funny)
Oh Mercy Me! It's great to begin my week with a good joke!
Re:obligatory (Score:5, Insightful)
e.g. : In Soviet Russia, you own your software, in America your software owns you.
Re:Damn! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:War on piracy...pffft! (Score:4, Informative)
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If the reason is to create ar
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We're gonna have a whole lotta fun
The call to arms from the privileged elite. You never quite know whether to cry or to laugh.
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Yeah. Just like the old days [jstor.org]. Kinda makes me nostalgic.
Re:Copyright and fascism (Score:5, Insightful)
The US is just defending their interests abroad. They are the largest exporter of copyrighted material in the world, and large-scale copyright infringement abroad can have an effect on American jobs.
By that logic, people who use the GPL are scum, since it is copyright law that prevents non-GPL derivatives.
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As to hurting american jobs?
Re:Copyright and fascism (Score:4, Insightful)
And for people who are going to say "hey, the RIAA/MPAA/BSA/US Government are only protecting our interests abroad!"... um... no. They are only protecting corporate interests abroad and doing so by manipulating and demanding how other nations will behave.
This is a case of American corporations not liking the laws other nations have within their own borders. The reason we want to change their laws and force them to abide by our broken copyright systems is the same reason we want them to become democracies and the same reason that we allow corporations to do business in countries that are a risk to our nation by threat of military actions, spying and have terribly humanitarian records. That reason being that corporations have saturated existing markets. Everyone who is going to by a Justin Timberlake CD in America, Austrlia and the United Kingdom already has done so. To continue expanding their corporations, they need to expand into new markets.
Helping bring other countries into competition with us at the expense of our own nation and citizens will eventually level them off to a point where they can all afford to buy our CDs and DVDs and videogames, as long as their legal systems and copyright systems (which we will force them to devise and comply with to our liking). Meanwhile, the average person in America and the UK can have their lifestyles seriously reduced in quality before they will no longer be capable or willing to buy content from these corporations.
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What I'd like to know is, why does everything have to be a "War on Something" nowadays?
The more they advertise something, the more likely that "something" is the opposite of what's stated. For example:
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Yeah, just keep in mind that when that same government is mugging you for crappy things like Socialist Security et al., those thuggings are somehow OK.
Because CNN said so.
Actually Social Security began long before CNN was even a gleam in Ted's eye in an at
Re:I give up on humanity,hope we burn in nuclear f (Score:2)
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Your points may be good as far as they go, but they hardly capture the sum total of the Human Race. Still, if you feel this way and are certain that you're right, then go ahead - lead the charge into
Re:I give up on humanity,hope we burn in nuclear f (Score:2)
Re:Allofmp3.com shut down? (Score:5, Interesting)
Basically, American perception that the Russian gov't is shutting down allofmp3.com is a misperception, and one which I suspect the Russians are happy not to correct. Perhaps they'll get around to changing the law, but remember that allofmp3.com pays a cut to some Russian licensing agency -- not sure where that money goes, but wouldn't surprise me if money is finding its way into gov't coffers (or politicians' pockets?)