Piracy, Policy, and Russia's Emerging Media Market

Abstract

The birth of a media market in Russia affords a unique opportunity to study the collision of international and national norms and practices. The refraction of globalization—involving, in this case, copyright protection and the program market—through local values and the rather different outcomes of sanctions and market inducements emerge as critical issues. The players in this drama are major and independent U.S. movie studios and trade organizations; U.S. governmental agencies involved in trade and assistance; and Russian movie studios, television stations, legislators, police, and, curiously, dissidents whose early advocacy of piracy helped build a more pluralized media system. Without an adequate framework of domestic laws and enforcement institutions, Russian broadcast television stations nonetheless dramatically curtailed their practice of pirating U.S. films—a result of complex alliances and incentives.