This article takes a much more anthropological perspective and focuses on the user side of illegal music download sites in Ukraine. Haigh discusses the differences in the music and movie market in Ukraine compared to that of the West. She also talks about the financial limitations of Ukrainians and the limited use of the Internet I that country. She draws parallels between modern norms of illegal fire sharing the heritage of the Soviet Union and its copyright regime.
This article supplies a crucial perspective for my argument – the motivations of populations to download illegally from the Internet and infringe copyright. The financial situation of Ukrainians is particularly important because it is clear that they cannot afford legal copies of the pirated material. The ACTA and other multinational authorities should be cognizant and offer alternatives to illegal sites in order to give incentives for the users to switch to legitimate materials. This also means that the legal sources should be affordable for the native population. The article also touches on the perception and attitude of Ukrainians toward the western legal copyright framework. This links back to the sentiments of the natives evoked by their life within the Soviet Union. Ukraine is a proud nation and in its history it has been constantly conquered and re-conquered by foreign powers, which imposed their own rule on the population. Ukrainians feel that when the WTO and the US are allegedly trying to protect their intellectual property rights, in effect they are acting just like the USSR and attempting to coerce Ukraine to follow western models even when they are not suited for the needs of the country. This attitude is echoed throughout most other eastern European former Soviet satellites and republics.
tagged culture file_sharing piracy ukraine by nikolovb ...on 25-NOV-08


