With copyright issues still a major problem...

Vedomosti cited a recent survey carried out by the Microsoft Corporation in Russia among 2500 computer and software retailers in 53 cities across the Russian Federation. The survey, dubbed "The Mysterious Customer," showed that 25% of the retailers sold pirate software, and some 11% offered to install the software onto customers" computers.

While software piracy is traditionally rife in Russia"s Far East, high rates were also recorded in Yekaterinburg (41%), Chelyabinsk (30%) and Moscow (27%).

However, Yuri Zlobin, the head of the anti-piracy association "The Russian Shield" disputed the results of the survey and said only 10% of computer retailers in Moscow sell licensed software, adding that the situation in other regions was even worse.

Sales of pirated DVDs, CDs and computer software have long been an issue in Russia, which has the second-largest market for pirated products after China, with intellectual copyright protection one of the issues that the United

Pages: [1] 2