The Russian Supreme Arbitration Court settled the dispute between leading Russian television channel RTR and social network Vkontakte on the liability of the social network for the transfer and use of unlicensed content on the site. The court ruled that Vkontakte is not responsible for its users’ copyright violations.
The Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) made public yesterday a list of 30 Internet and physical markets in various countries which “have been the subject of enforcement action connected with counterfeiting and piracy, or may merit further investigation for possible intellectual property rights (IPR) infringements.” Among them are Vkontakte.ru, Russia’s leading social …
Two leading Russian sites blacklisted by US government for piracy Read More
VimpelCom, a leading Russian mobile operator with headquarters in Amsterdam, welcomed yesterday the decision of the English Commercial Court allowing its March 17, 2011 shareholder meeting to go forward as planned.
Telenor, seeking an order that would require VimpelCom to issue extra shares in its favor at the same time that it issues shares for Wind, announced yesterday it had petitioned the Commercial Court in London for an injunction that would see those shares placed in escrow until the conclusion of the arbitration proceeding that it …
Telenor seeks injunction to derail VimpelCom acquisition Read More
Microsoft has completed the most recent round of its piracy-monitoring program in Russia, a program that monitors the levels of unlicensed software in retail computer sales. Of 3,229 audited retail outlets in 94 Russian cities, about 20 percent offered pirated software to customers. Eleven percent of the audited retail outlets allowed preinstallation of pirated software.
Telenor, a Norwegian company with mobile operations in countries across Europe and Asia, yesterday commenced arbitration proceedings against VimpelCom, a leading Russian mobile operater in which Telenor owns a 40% stake, and Altimo, a VimpelCom shareholder. Altimo is an invesment company representing Alfa Group, one of Russia’s largest privately owned financial-industrial conglomerates.
The Russian Interior ministry announced that a criminal case has been opened against a 26 year-old Muscovite for having “replicated and disseminated” 18 copyrighted music recordings from his personal page on Vkontakte.ru. This followed a complaint from Nikitin, the Russian music company that owns the rights.
