Piracy

However, there are other reasons behind the growth of pirated products. Economic Development Minister German Gref opines that the main reason is that the services sector amounts to hardly 30% of Russia's GDP, while in developed Western countries it exceeds 70%. So stealing copyright products is not considered a serious offense in the Russian system of values. As the share of provided services will be growing, the volume of piracy will be decreasing, he maintains.

Loopholes in the Russian legislation also encourage piracy, and so do mild punishments that are inadequate to the scale of the offense, which many people acknowledge. A high-ranking officer in the Interior Ministry's economic crimes department, who has been fighting against intellectual property-related crimes for several years, says that piracy can be stopped only by force. To do so, cases of piracy should be tried in courts of general jurisdiction rather than arbitration courts; and amendments should be introduced to the Criminal Code to make punishment for piracy tougher.

Originally posted: http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20060220/43661275.html