The US government today decided to suspend the special duty-free status for Ukrainian products and issued a preliminary list of other products that could face sanctions, due to Ukraine's persistent failure to curb unauthorized production of optical media products (CDs, CD-ROMs, DVDs, etc.).
Ukraine is the largest producer and exporter of pirated optical media products in Europe, according to U.S. recording industries. Ukraine's exports of unauthorized compact discs (CDs) are disrupting markets throughout the region and beyond. |
For over two years, the United States has been urging Ukraine to take measures to stop this piracy and prevent its recurrence. Despite the commitments Ukraine made as part of the June 2000 U.S.-Ukraine Joint Action Plan to Combat Optical Media Piracy in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Government has failed to curtail the piracy.
The two principal elements of this Joint Action Plan were that Ukraine (1) would immediately use its existing law enforcement authority to stop the piracy and (2) by November 2000 would establish an optical media licensing regime, which would serve to prevent a subsequent recurrence. Unfortunately, Ukraine still has not complied with either of those commitments.
This is probably one of the best actions the US can take for fighting piracy. I don't think it will work, Ukrain people will probably not start paying 10 times more for a CD/DVD. Anyone for the Ukrain that can tell us more ?
Source: US goverment
