Russia should shut down a pirate music Web site that is robbing US recording companies of sales if it wants to become a member of the World Trade Organization, the top US trade official said on Wednesday.
“I have a hard time imagining Russia becoming a member of the WTO and having a Web site like that up and running that is so clearly a violation of everyone’s intellectual property rights,” U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab told reporters after a speech to a services industry organization.
Schwab’s call for the allofmp3.com Web site to be closed came as the United States and Russia are trying once again to reach a deal on Moscow’s 13-year-old bid to join the WTO.
Those talks failed in July, primarily because of agricultural issues and U.S. concerns that Russia was not doing enough to stop piracy and counterfeiting of American goods.
I've been interested in P2P since the early, high-flying days of Napster and KaZaA. I believe that analog copyright laws are ill-suited to the digital age, and that art and culture shouldn't be subject to the whims of international entertainment industry conglomerates. Twitter | Google Plus
