[x-pubpol] IFPI welcomes court ruling finding vKontakte liable for copyright infringement

[Joly MacFie]

http://the1709blog.blogspot.com/2012/05/ifpi-and-global-recording-industry-have.html




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The IFPI and the global recording industry have welcomed the verdict of the
Russian appeal court (17th May 2012) that confirmed social networking and
downloading site vKontakte is liable for copyright infringement. The case
against vKontakte was brought by SBA Music Publishing and SBA Production
and members of the Gala Records Music Group, a subsidiary of EMI in Russia.
The cases were based on vKontakte making many of Gala’s music compositions
and sound recordings available without licensing agreements in place.

The judgment by the Saint Petersburg appeal court upheld the earlier ruling
by the commercial (“Arbitrazh”) Court of Saint Petersburg in
January.Frances Moore, chief executive of IFPI, said : “This judgment sends
a clear signal to those in Russia that seek to build their businesses on
the back of other people’s content. We urge vKontakte to take immediate
steps to stop its service being used to infringe copyright on a massive
scale" adding “Widespread digital piracy is preventing Russia from
developing a thriving legitimate digital music sector and this in turn
denies Russian artists a chance of success and starves them of investment
by producers.”

The IFPI say that the Russian market has declined substantially since 2007,
from US$191 million to US$76.6 million. During that time, the digital
market has grown, yet last year saw a substantial fall even in digital
revenue, which the IFPI attribute to piracy vKontakte is Russia’s most
popular online entertainment platform with more than 110 million registered
users and is one of the top 50 most visited sites in the world, attracting
more traffic than BBC Online or CNN.com. Its valued at upwards of $1.5
billion (though in facebook world, who knows what its worth today - or what
it might be worth tomorrow!). The unlicensed vKontakte music service allows
streaming of music from an extensive catalogue of Russian and international
sound recordings and encourages software developers to create apps for
illegal downloading of content using vKontakte.

source: www.ifpi.org

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