Pirates Are Being Driven Under Cover

The Russian government thinks that all street venders of audio and videocassettes and also laser disks, are pirates. Yesterday Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov signed a decree banning the sale of these products at outdoor stands. Copyright experts welcome this decision, and sellers promise that prices for CDs and cassettes will grow.

The government passed amendments and additions to The Rules for Selling Isolated Types of Goods approved on January 19, 1998. The new decree bans the "retail sale of audiovisual works or phonograms from outdoor stands or tents." It also requires producers to place information about themselves and the holders of the rights to the movies or sound recordings on the CDs and cassettes, and the sellers must make sure such information is available.

Igor Pozhitkov, the regional director of the Moscow office of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), assessed the government's anti-pirating initiatives positively. He thinks that the decision to bind producers to place a notice about themselves and the copyright holders is an attempt to create legal limits on their operations. "Only one global issue is left to be solved, which is how accurately laws and other statutory acts will actually be enforced," said Pozhitkov.

Oleg Yashin, the executive secretary of the Entrepreneur Council's Information Market Safety Commission at the Mayor's office and the Moscow government, also thinks that the ban on outdoor sales of CDs and cassettes with movies and sound recordings is right. He said that some time ago the commission conducted a survey and found out that there aren't any outdoor stands that sell only legal products in Moscow, in contrast to retail sales in pavilions. "Pirates will move from stands to pavilions," Yashin said. He also noted that the requirement for producers to make sure that certain information is available on the CDs, cassettes or packaging contradicts the other requirement stipulated in yesterday's decree — ensuring the integrity of this package. "What if the necessary information is available, but not readable without destroying the cellophane?" asked Yashin. However, everything except this detail suits the expert. "The decree is good because it defines the government's stance and a clear mechanism of anti-pirating," he concluded.

Sellers themselves disagree with rights advocates. Viktor Illarionov, marketing director of the Blade company that owns a retail chain in Gorbushka, thinks that the government's decree will restrict trade and cause an increase in prices. He is confident that due to the restriction of outdoor trade, sellers in pavilions will also be the victims because many outdoor sellers purchased their CDs in the pavilions at Gorbushka.

"The ban on sound recording sellers will also push forward the interest in mp3s, a computer form of audio compression," said Illarionov. According to him, sales of CD players have decreased recently, while those of mp3-players have increased. The restriction of outdoor trade will intensify this tendency because audio files can be found on the Internet for free.