The Final Chapter of Precedent Setting Court Proceedings Against New York Video-Pirates Brought on by Russian Filmmakers Commences on June 11th at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York

The Final Chapter of Precedent Setting Court Proceedings Against New York Video-Pirates Brought on by Russian Filmmakers Commences on June 11th at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York

NEW YORK, June 11 /PRNewswire/ -- The final chapter of court proceedings against Brighton Beach video-pirates brought on by Russian filmmakers will commences today at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York. During this hearing, which is going to set a precedent for the US justice system, the jury - for the first time ever in the US copyright cases - will review the financial claims of the Russian plaintiffs. The verdict will define the amount of damages that the major Russian plaintiffs - film companies "Mosfilm", "Lenfilm", "Krupniy plan" and their US representative company Close-Up International are entitled to.

In June of last year, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York has ruled in favor of Russian copyright owners, finding all their charges against the family of companies "Dom Knigi Sankt-Peterburg" and their owners to be valid. These companies are well-known in Brighton Beach as the major distributors of Russian video and audio products.

This became the very first court victory of Russian filmmakers and their US representatives Close-Up International over American video-pirates, confirming and sustaining the legal entitlement of Russian companies to the masterpieces of both Soviet and contemporary Russian movie rights, setting not only a judicial precedent but also creating a far more effective method of struggle against video piracy in the North American market - successful legal action.

The verdict of the United States District Judge David Trager, who has presided over the trial of "Dom Knigi Sankt-Peterburg" since 2002, confirmed that the plaintiffs are the owners of film copyrights and trademarks "Krupnyi plan" and "Mosfilm", and that the defendants willingly and knowingly infringed upon these copyrights and illegally used the trademarks of the plaintiffs. The United States District Judge Trager further ruled that the amount of the monetary damages that the copyrights' owners should receive will be decided by a jury. The usual and customary monetary award in the USA for one count of intentional copyright infringement is about $30,000, with the maximum award being $150,000. The court has found the defendants guilty on 383 counts of intentional copyright infringement, therefore the amount of damages to be awarded to the plaintiffs may range from 11 to 57 million dollars.

The trademark and copyright infringement lawsuit was originally filed at the US District Court Eastern District of New York on April 19, 2002. The lawsuit alleged that the owners and retailers "Dom Knigi Sankt-Peterburg" breached the legal rights of the Russian filmmakers who own the copyrights to Russian films by unauthorized duplication and distribution of Russian films in the US. The plaintiffs were the US company "Close-Up International" and the Russian companies which it represents in the US - film and video association "Krupnyi Plan" and "Film Enterprise "Mosfilm." They were also supported by the film production company "Lenfilm" which however was not a party to this lawsuit.

"Close-Up International" is an exclusive distributor of the "Golden Collection" of films by Russian film production companies "Mosfilm", "Lenfilm" and several other movie production companies. This collection contains more than 500 movie titles and includes hundreds of masterpieces of Soviet and Russian cinema and favorite films of Russian speaking viewers. The defendants in this lawsuit (which became unofficially known as "battle for "Mosfilm") were the family of companies "Dom Knigi "St.Petersburg" as well as its' co- owners - Joseph Berov and Natalia Orlova. Natalia Orlova later settled with the plaintiffs.

Extremely detrimental for the defendants were the facts that Joseph Berov was once before found guilty by a New York Court on a count of "video-piracy', and that in the past criminal charges were brought against him as well.

"Our court victory, which has set a judicial precedent, did not come easy" - concludes Natalia Ganem of Close-Up International. Despite the common opinion that copyright protection case law in the USA is well established we had the burden of proof of almost everything, we basically had to "invent the wheel" in this area of law. This case lasted more than 5 years and consumed enormous amounts of time, money and emotional resources."

But such lawsuits are in her opinion the "necessary evil" and practically a staple in the film distribution business. Similar endeavors are taking place in Canada - since the fall of 2005 Close-Up International filed in three Courts of the Province of Ontario 22 separate federal lawsuits against 26 retail stores, movie rental outlets and online stores owned by immigrants from the former Soviet Union. The total amount of damages sought is about 340 million dollars. All defendants have allegedly violated the copyrights of Russian filmmakers.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: RusInfoService, LLC

CONTACT: Dimitri Klimentov of RusInfoService +1-914-525-6058, Natalia
Ganem of Close-Up International, +1-718-492-5903, +1-917-596-1818 (c), Harvey
Shapiro, Plaintiff's Attorney of Sargoy, Stein, Rosen & Shapiro, +1-212-621-
8224, all for RusInfoService, LLC

-------
Profile: intent