MPAA turns attention to Russia
p2p news / p2pnet: MPAA (Motion Picture Association of America) boss Dan Glickman regularly trips over to China as Hollywood’s hit man, carrying the message that the country had better shape up when it comes to copyrights. Or else. And with the Bush administration behind it, Hollywood’s threats have validity.
It’s been largely left to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) to wave the big stick at Russia. But it looks as though that’s going to change and China Dan might well be adding Igor to his name.
Beginning today, he’s in Moscow for what the MPAA describes as a, “series of events and meetings designed to highlight how piracy is threatening Russia’s [read Hollywood] burgeoning film industry”.
In Russia, “laws have certainly improved, but holes still need to be filled,” says China Dan.
“And good laws are only the first step. A real political commitment must be made to enforce the laws, backed up by a judiciary willing to apply them”.
By an amazing coincidence, Glickman showed up just as the US government is nearing the conclusion of its bilateral negotiations with Russia on the country’s possible inclusion in the World Trade Organization.
March 30th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
Subject says it all.
March 30th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
Look, the reasons that drives file sharing (I only consider piracy the buying/selling of IP works – not the fair use of sharing it) in the USA and Canada is a lot different than what drives the piracy problem in Russia.
What’s the average wage of a family in Russia? I’ll tell you, the average household income in 1998 was 6,395,000 rubles ($1176 USD) according to CNN.. Oh, I’m sure it’s gone up a little, lets just ‘assume’ everyone got a 5% a year raise (which I’m sure didn’t happen but for my point we’ll assume it)… that means the average income is now 9,448,328 rubles or $1,737.48/yr which comes out to $144.79/mo or $33.41/wk…
Ok, now let’s look at America – I’m going to say the ‘average’ income here is about $24,000/yr so ignoring tax, which would mean $2000/mo or $461.54/wk. That $20 cd/movie here is about 0.083% of the income; however, in Russia that same $20 is 1.151% of their annual income… To make it a little clearer, that’s 1,381.31% higher price to the average Russian than the average American… In other words it would be like our cd’s/movies were priced at $276.26 each!
Now, all that said – WHO would pay $276.26 a movie or cd?? – NOBODY!
When the prices are equal, I bet Russians would buy more.. so to pass along the same price ratio that’d mean the prices in Russia would need to drop to $1.48 just to match the price to income ratio.. and keep in mind boys and girls that Americans think the $20 is too much, in fact, most of us on polls I’ve read want the prices down around or below $10, so lets put all the cards in here and say if the MPAA/RIAA dropped all prices to $10 in America and $0.73 in Russia, then they’ll start making sales….
Yep, I know – not going to happen.. And neither will forcing Russians to buy the RIAA/MPAA product!
I’d read a while back a comment from a Russian girl when presented with does the average person buy pirated or new-movies/music typically.. her answer was basically that the only time anyone buys a new cd/movie is for a special gift but the rest of the time they buy from street vendors and that ppl who buy the high-priced ones were seen as wasting their money and preppy, stuck up types… the average person only buys off the street.
All this said – I support p2p, I’ve never supported piracy and I never will… but the fundamental problem in Russia is income and WHO or not unless they reinvent the wheel and find a way to multiply the average wage there wont be a change that’s enforceable and even if they did stop piracy, they would only be stopping the music from being shared as there would be VERY minimal purchase changes given their income limitations.
Just my 10 cents.
_-Jile-_
March 30th, 2006 at 9:13 pm
I wonder how much money they are spending to send Glickman all over the world?
March 30th, 2006 at 9:48 pm
You can joke about this all you want but think of what it means. Hollywood, whhc is just another word for corruption, telling a foreign country what to do so its owners can buy more cocaine and stuff.
March 30th, 2006 at 11:46 pm
Yes, it’s about time to do a remake on Dr. Zhivago. War and Peace desperately needs a sequel. How about Crime & Punishment, The Musical? This is an excellent idea.
March 31st, 2006 at 2:22 am
Who cares YOUR paying for it!!!!!!
April 1st, 2006 at 12:15 am
If they drop to that price, people’d buy the Russian version, which is why the MPAA asswipes have their region codes. The foreign versions’d be bought by us all the time!
April 1st, 2006 at 5:10 pm
Right on target.
Someone should write/publsh a book of what is said on 2pnet! Maybe then will the politicians or the people that put the politicians in place understand. These need simple, non legalese messages and this is one of those.
Rafael Venegas
http://www.gvenegas.com