Combat against web piracy spreads to Russia
Published 25 June, 2009, 10:51
The Russian offices of major record labels including Universal Music and Sony Music as well as music selling companies have teamed up in the fight against web piracy.
According to the Russian daily Vedomosti, a unified database containing the list of illegal companies will be created in order to combat piracy.
The newly-born alliance will be promoting legal methods of accessing music on the Internet. For this reason, copyright holders and major web portals are expected to create services for listening to music online, without the ability to download it.
Vedomosti reports such an online service will be soon launched by one of Russia's biggest Internet firms, Yandex. It will be free for users. Profits will be raised by advertising and subscription.
According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents the recording industry worldwide safeguarding the rights of record producers, in 2008 up to 95% of music on retail was downloaded from the Internet illegally.
discuss it
