Russian officials destroyed 500,000 pirated CDs in an ongoing effort to stop counterfeiting VIDEO CNN's Mike Hanna looks into the black market of pirated software, music and movies in Russia Windows Media 28K 80K

August 4, 1999
Web posted at: 8:03 p.m. EDT (0003 GMT)

In this story: Moral ambivalence RELATED STORIES, SITES

From Correspondent Mike Hanna

MOSCOW (CNN) -- The recent highly publicized destruction of half a million pirated CDs is part of a campaign by Russian officials to counter counterfeiters.

"There are as many as 50 pirate factories in Moscow and the surrounding region alone," said Vadim Sabilkin of the Association for Fighting Computer Piracy. "And I can say there are probably around 2 million illegal disks sold in Moscow each month."

It's not just CDs that are pirated. There is also a massive trade in counterfeit videos.

"I think that compared with European markets, this is by far the market with the largest piracy problem," says Nathan Knight of the Motion Picture Association. "Our estimates are around $300 million annually."

Moral ambivalence

Helping fuel the trade in pirated products is a sense of moral ambivalence about the practice among the Russian public. While the counterfeit trade hurts performers, writers and producers, some Russians regard that segment of society as already prosperous.

At Moscow's Gorbushka Market, an astonishingly vast array of CDs and videos is available every weekend -- costing as little as 20 percent of the listed legal price.

Stall owners see themselves not as criminals but as honest traders providing products to the people at a price they can afford.

And that raises a stark question for anti-piracy campaigners: In a time of deep economic hardship, how do you shut down a thriving industry that clearly exists by public consent?

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