Pirated intellectual property makes up 90% of Russian market

Pirated intellectual property makes up approximately 90% of total intellectual property market, said Deputy General Prosecutor Vladimir Kolesnikov, while speaking at an international conference entitled 'Counterfeit products - problems and road to solution.'

Kolesnikov said that counterfeit products account for more than 80% of all video products in Russia, 70% of printed material and books and 70% of audio products. World levels of pirated goods are lower than Russian levels. 50% of video and 33% of audio products are produced with copyright violations. Kolesnikov said that the majority of pirated audio products are produced in Russian factories. Russia has become one of the top violators of copyright laws and major exporter of pirated audio products. Pirated CDs produced in Russia end up in the US, Europe, Middle East and Latin America.

Kolesnikov said that defending intellectual property laws is one component of the country's national security and the General Prosecutor sees the battle with piracy as one of its highest priorities. He also said that the government is losing large sums of tax revenues due to piracy. At the same time, when speaking about the causes of piracy, Kolesnikov said that they are primarily economic. 'We have such a high level of piracy because there is great demand for it. Consumers would be happy to buy the genuine product, but are unable to because of the high cost,' he said.