Russia`s pending battle with Hollywood in a post-Snowden world

Why should Russia care if Hollywood is colonizing its youth with American propaganda? Because it`s cutting into Russia`s ability to develop a huge new industrial base away from oil and gas.

Russia`s economy would get a huge boost from reforming copyright law as I outlined HERE.

The world, in many respects, is a colony of Hollywood. And Hollywood is the ultimate manifestation of America`s `soft power.` Hundreds of millions of people see Hollywood movies every year where the definition of good and evil, as defined by Hollywood, is hammered home with stars, special effects and multi-billion dollar marketing budgets. And by `the world` I also mean Russia.

Yo Russia, get proactive on this copyright thing

The means by which Hollywood`s top lobbyist in Washington conduct their propaganda: are pernicious, innovation-killing copyright laws that put intellectual property on corporate balance sheets for perpetuity.

Is there another opinion on this? In response to my previous blog on this, I got the following comment:

What about Russia`s WTO membership - there are agreements on intellectual property rights that it can no longer infringe.... Would you add anything on that or we leave it as it is? D.L.

Well, this is what I think: I would call that an intellectual property slave mentality. For it assumes that Russia will only and always be just a consumer of intellectual property, and not a producer. Fortunately, smart folks in Russia have a different opinion and are pushing this issue to the forefront and in this post-Snowden world where activists with keyboards can make any country look silly - this is not a trivial development:

With Russia`s new anti-piracy law just a few days old, further opposition will be voiced today in a particularly unconventional manner. Following Russia`s first Kopimi-inspired wedding yesterday, in which the happy couple exchanged vows and silicon chips, pirates in several areas of the country will today apply to form their own church. Official complaints will then be filed against the new law on the basis that it insults the beliefs that underpin the Kopimist religion.

In my opinion this has the potential to rock Russia`s social landscape. Consider the most explosive controversies to come out of Russia over the past couple of years: both "Pussy Riot" and the talk of a vodka boycott by foreign gay-rights activists are perceived as direct challenges to the ultra-conservative post-soviet Russian church and society.

It may sound somewhat comical for copyright activists to call themselves a religion as a way to do battle with the Hollywood copyright cartel, but in Russia, given the heat around recent social issues - relating to the church - I have to believe this might prompt the church to make a statement regarding a new religion that is tied to a belief in progressive copyright laws.

And of course they have every right to do so - and their comments must be respected but from a purely business and finance prospective, I repeat what I said before: rolling back copyright from the `lifetime plus 70 years` model that Hollywood likes would hasten an incredible digital boom for Russia as millions of young technologists flock to the wide open spaces of terabytes worth of intellectual property released from its corporate prison cells.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

sections: Politics