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Trouble On Russia's WTO Horizon?
by Winter Casey
A dispute between the music industry and a Russian-based Internet site highlights concerns over Russia's 13-year bid to join the World Trade Organization.
Both the international music industry and U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab have accused the Web site AllofMP3.com of illegally distributing the music of copyright holders and creators from around the world. The company argues that it is in complete compliance with Russian law.
"We don't believe it is acceptable for Russia to join the WTO while allowing this site to exist," said Sean Spicer, a spokesman for Schwab.
During an online press conference Tuesday, AllofMP3 Director General Vadim Mamotin said "the U.S. government is conveniently using AllofMP3 as an issue to gain further concessions from Russia" in its bid to join the WTO. AllofMP3 also said it is seeking direct negotiations with the recording and publishing industries that have blasted the company's business practices.
"AllofMP3 is a legitimate business that is incorporated in Russia, pays taxes in Russia, and pays royalties to the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society," Mamotin said.
The company said that it pays copyright royalties and that the Russian Multimedia and Internet Society must "compensate the appropriate copyright holders." AllofMP3 said Western copyright holders deny the legitimacy of the ROMS license because the recording cartel "doesn't control ROMS" and "would rather have complete control over the royalty question."
ROMS has offered to distribute the royalties it has been collecting to U.S. and United Kingdom recording companies, the company claimed. The Recording Industry Association of America, however, said in a statement released Tuesday that ROMS "has no mandate from international rights owners to license the site in or outside Russia."
USTR said in a 2006 report that AllofMP3 is under criminal investigation by Russian authorities. Spicer noted that a Russian law passed in September made it illegal for companies to distribute unauthorized content online.
But the company said "we have not been pressured by the Russian government" to close. The company said it does not actively market to countries other than Russia. "We clearly caution visitors to make sure they are in compliance with their country's law," Mamotin said.
"They can call it whatever they want, but they are stealing music," Spicer responded.
RIAA spokesman Jonathan Lamy added: "There is no gray area of the law concerning the illegality of storing recordings in an electronic database and selling downloads in the way that Allofmp3.com does. This is illegal under international treaties and under current Russian law."
Groups such as the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry have demanded that Allofmp3 acknowledge that it is an illegal service. But Mamotin maintains that "the music industry is rapidly changing and [the company] will change with it."
Europe To Fund Tracking System, Tech Projects
The European Union will fund projects to create an advanced tracking and surveillance system in order to identify financial transactions linked to criminal activities.
In a memorandum released last week, the union said the i-TRACS system will pull data from multiple sources. The European Union also will fund research on new ways to detect terrorism financing and money-laundering using advanced technology.
In addition, the body will support the development of an online system to protect the drinking-water supply, and the development of improved data-sharing and technical integration for those involved in emergency and humanitarian operations. EU countries further plan to: improve wireless coordination across security agencies; identify technical standards to improve border security and develop a system for testing biometric components; and track suspicious people.
The European Union has insisted that it will weigh the importance of protecting privacy and civil liberties in carrying out such projects.
Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said privacy in the European Union is a central concern because of the broad reach of EU privacy laws. The European Union "tends to address privacy issues at the beginning of a project and bring in top privacy experts to weigh in on the issues," he said.
By contrast, Rotenberg said, more often in the United States, privacy is viewed as an obstacle that "U.S. agencies might try to work around."
But Lauren Weinstein, co-founder of the International Open Internet Coalition, said i-TRACS appears to be an EU version of a never-implemented U.S. government monitoring program known as Total Information Awareness.
"The concept of broad information collection on that kind of scale along with 'protecting civil liberties and privacy' is on its face suspect," he said. "In previous such efforts, we've found time and time again that the 'civil liberties-privacy' text in such proposals is essentially included as boilerplate, and in the end is usually marginalized to the point of uselessness as the surveillance aspects gain even more weight as the work continues."
U.S. Announces International IP Projects
The U.S. State Department has approved funding for projects to support the international protection of intellectual property. The initiatives will enable U.S. law enforcers and diplomatic missions to work together to provide global training and technical assistance.
Projects in Brazil and Colombia will focus on training judges and prosecutors on IP enforcement, and a two-year program will train Indian customs and border officials on IP issues. Another project in Indonesia is focused on helping the national police and Ministry of Industry to implement new optical-disc piracy regulations.
Meanwhile, under a joint understanding on bilateral defense relations signed last week by the United States and Iceland, the United States will contract with the Icelandic Radar Agency and Iceland Telecom to operate four air-defense radar sites until Aug. 15, 2007. The countries also plan to discuss information exchanges to counter terrorism and improve security.
Until September, the United States had forces stationed on Iceland dating back to World War II.
IBM Moves Procurement Work To China
IBM announced Friday that it is relocating its global procurement headquarters from Somers, N.Y., to Shenzhen, China. IBM said the move marks its shift from a multinational corporation to being a globally integrated enterprise.
"In a globally integrated enterprise, for the first time, a company's worldwide capability can be located wherever in the world it makes the most sense, based on the imperatives of economics, expertise and open environments," IBM Chief Procurement Officer John Paterson said in a statement.
In other news, the Canadian Supreme Court has ruled that databases compiled by newspapers and other publishers cannot reproduce freelance work without the specific agreement of the creators.
And Britain's highest court has found that journalists have the right to publish allegations against public figures if the reporting is responsible and in the public interest.
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