Re: Russia and ROMS

The following is from the Director of the Copyright Alliance. Note that I post his response with permission.

Nancy

>Dear Ms. Delain,
>
>I came across your post about A****.com (thanks for not typing
>the full name). As you're probably aware, the reason the copyright
>holders don't agree with the verdict is that ROMS, this alleged
>licensing agency, may get money from the web site and its successor,
>but it never pays out any royalties to copyright owners, at least
>not non-Russian ones. I also understand that ROMS is run by one of
>Putin's cabinet members, which explains a lot.
>
>The fact is, most people seem to feel that the way Russian law is
>written, it's entirely possible that this activity is "legal."
>However, those laws are wrong because Russia is a signatory to
>international treaties that obligate it to respect international
>copyrights, which its law is not doing. Domestic law is supposed to
>change to comply with international treaties; we did that with the
>Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which brought us into compliance
>with two WIPO treaties. You're right about WTO being a part of this,
>it's hard to imagine why copyright owners should believe any
>promises made by the Russian government in the WTO process when they
>are choosing openly to defy other, related treaties.
>
>Best,
>
>Patrick
>
>
>Patrick Ross, Executive Director
>The Copyright Alliance
>601 13th St. NW, Suite 250N
>Washington, DC 20005
>www.copyrightalliance.org
>
-----Original Message-----
From: "Nancy Baum Delain, Esq."
To: "Patrick Ross"
Sent: 8/27/07 8:35 AM
Subject: Re: Russia and ROMS

Dear Mr. Ross,

Thanks very much for your email. May I post your response in the blog?

Best regards,
Nancy


From: "Patrick Ross"
Subject: RE: Russia and ROMS
Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2007 08:49:25 -0400
To: "Nancy Baum Delain, Esq."

Yes, please do.

Cheers,

Patrick