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May 2002, Week 1

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Sender:
Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:
From:
Jessica Rosner <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 6 May 2002 11:01:25 -0400
Reply-To:
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Joan Borsten who does not subscribe to
the listserv asked me to post the following
in response to a discussion involving
Copyrights on Russian films which we had
back in March regarding a post by
Eli Savada that a company known as
Krupny Plan had copyrighted hundreds
of classic and recent Russian films



  First of all, NIEs had to be filed by the original
copyright  holder, which was Mosfilm.
Rigma (Joseph Berov) was an agent at that
time of Krupniy Plan, the
distributor of Mosfilm.  Mosfilm filed its own
NIEs.
Rigma tried to file for all rights in all media in
order to create false
"facts" but was stopped by Mosfilm which
complained to the US copyright
office.  Unfortunately at the time no one at the
Copyright Office understood
that Rigma was not an agent for the original
copyright holder.

Six months later in July 1998 , having
amassed a legal collection of master
cassettes and negatives for printing official
Krupniy
Plan boxes, Berov stopped paying Krupniy
Plan and became a pirate.  At the
time he was on Federal Probation for
importing soviet women into this
country for the purpose of indentured
servitude.

Secondly, Mosfilm and Krupniy Plan and US
marshals raided Rigma America aka
St, Ptersburg publishing house AKA
Russian Book and WHolesale AKA St
Petersburg Publishing aka RussKniga May 1
and May 2, 2002.  They reportedly found in
Berov's warehouse 100,000 illegally
duplicated copies of Mosfilm movies,
600,000 fake holograms, and tens of
thousands of pirated European movies.
Not to mention some MPAA titles -- incredible
because Berov is out on $1m
bail after a massive FBI raid in Dec 2000
involving piracy of the MPAA and
American recording industry (he pleaded guilty
in Feb 2002 and will be
sentenced in September).

I believe  you will discover that the Mosfilm suit
seeks cancellation of all
of those hundreds of illegal registrations
described above.  It brings to a
total of 3 the piracy suits which have brought
against Berov/Rigma/St.
Petersburg publishing house  in Eastern
DIstrict Federal Court.  He lost one
of those cases to us in AUgust 2001 (about
piracy of the Russian animation
we licensed in 1992).  He pleaded guilty to the
FBI case.  And now Mosfilm.


Joan Borsten




Films by Jove
11325 Sunshine Terrace
Studio City, CA 91604
818 5060550
fax 818 7520387

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