From the Results of Bilateral Negotiations on Russia’s Accession
to the World Trade Organization (WTO), November 19th:
The United States and Russia have agreed on a binding blueprint for actions that Russia will take to address piracy and counterfeiting and improve protection and enforcement of intellectual property rights (IPR), both stated priorities of the Russian Government, starting immediately. 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. This binding agreement is an integral part of the United States – Russia WTO bilateral market access agreement, and implementation of the commitments on IPR will be essential to completing the final multilateral negotiations on the overall accession package.
And then, a few paragraphs farther down:
The United States and Russia agreed on the objective of shutting down websites that permit illegal distribution of music and other copyright works. The agreement names the Russia-based website allofmp3.com as an example of such a website.
Now, with former Russian secret agents getting killed in Western Europe, countries like Chechnya being ruled by Russian puppet politicians and a blatant disregard of freedom of the press (or even worse than that) in what reminds some of the old Soviet Union, a website selling music for less than the services approved by the RIAA is of course the biggest problem of all of mankind. Or the multi-national corporations who are actually the only ones gaining from a cut-throat organisation like the WTO.
Read a bit more about the issue here.