Thursday, September 22, 2005

Another reason to send the Hollyweirdos to Russia!

Want a pirate DVD? Try the secret nuclear bunker:
DURING the Cold War the West spent billions of dollars trying to spy on the military installations of the Soviet Union. Now Western governments are targeting secret Russian military facilities in a new conflict, this time over the piracy of music, films and software.

The Russian Interior Ministry has revealed that millions of pirated DVDs, CDs and CD-ROMs are being produced at factories on secret military facilities beyond the jurisdiction of the police. The ministry said: “Some of the counterfeit production is being made in commercial structures installed in secret and top-secret facilities.”
...
Russian police have had little success in clamping down on the factories, which can churn out an estimated 250 million discs a year, of which 90 per cent are pirated. In a kiosk less than 500 metres from the Moscow office of The Times, Anatoly offered a pirate DVD copy of the Adam Sandler comedy The Longest Yard — released in Britain on September 9 — for only 150 roubles (£3). “Tomorrow I’ll have Revolver,” he said, even though Guy Ritchie’s latest film had its premiere in London only this week.

Industry experts say that of the 42 factories known to be producing bootleg films, music and software at least 12 are on restricted government or military sites, many in or around Moscow. Konstantin Zem-chinkov, the director of the Russian Anti-Piracy Organisation (RAPO), said: “They want to make it difficult for police to come in and raid them. The military knows about it and the Government knows about it.”

The problem, he said, was that much of Russia’s vast military industrial complex was moribund and desperate for cash. “They have to have some money but the Government can’t supply it.”
Maybe the "stars" can put on a benefit show for them?