UKRAINE: USG-FUNDED IPR ENFORCEMENT TRAINING

UNCLAS KYIV 002460 SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/UMB AND EB/TPP/IPE - JURBAN STATE FOR INL - JVIGIL STATE PLEASE PASS TO USTR FOR PBURKHEAD/JGROVES USDOC FOR 4231/ITA/OEENIS/NISD - CLUCYCK COMMERCE PLEASE PASS TO USPTO AND CLDP SOFIA FOR DOJ - MLAMBERTI E.O. 12958: DECL: N/A TAGS: ETRD KIPR ECON UP SUBJECT: UKRAINE: USG-FUNDED IPR ENFORCEMENT TRAINING FOCUSES ON INTERNET PIRACY REFS: A) KYIV 1411 and previous B) KYIV 404 C) 2007 STATE 154669 D) 2007 KYIV 1417 E) 2007 STATE 55928 SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED; NOT FOR INTERNET PUBLICATION. ¶1. Summary: Post on December 5 held a workshop on combating internet piracy primarily for Ukrainian police, the fourth in a series of events that are part of a STATE/INL-funded, IPR training initiative. Some thirty police officials, from the Kyiv central office and the regions, and one prosecutor attended the event. USG and industry experts provided a practical introduction to internet piracy, as well as strategies and best practices to improve enforcement in this area in Ukraine. End Summary. Continuation of IPR Training Program -------------- ¶2. This December 5 internet piracy workshop was the latest event of our intellectual property rights (IPR) training initiative "Creating a Sustainable Ukrainian IPR Training Capability" (ref D). This initiative is part of the State Department's 2007 IPR Enforcement Training Funds Program (ref E),administered by the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL),which has allocated USD 125,000 for Ukraine (ref C). ¶3. About 30 Ministry of Interior officials from all over Ukraine and one prosecutor attended the workshop. Post made a deliberate effort to include officers from the regions, not just Kyiv, because officials at the Kyiv office of the Ministry of Interior often farm out investigations to regional offices due to lack of manpower. A participant from the eastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhya, for example, boasted that earlier in the year he had been the first to bring a criminal case involving a private website to trial. In addition, Post requested that Ministry officials select police officers with experience in computer/internet cases from cities that have generated such cases in order to target the officers most likely to handle an internet piracy case in the near future. ¶4. Prior workshops targeted judges and Customs officials (ref A). Post took the lead in organizing this seminar and used the INL fund cite provided in ref C. Post will provide copies of all funding documents to INL/RM. Internet Piracy: A New Problem for Ukraine -------------- ¶5. Post's 2008 Special 301 submission (ref B) noted that internet piracy is a nascent and growing problem in Ukraine. Many Ukraine-based websites offer pirated material for download with the full knowledge of their Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Industry groups estimate that out of the roughly 400 ISPs in Ukraine, 150 of them support websites offering pirated material. Microsoft has also complained that Local Area Networks (LAN),some of which cover entire Ukrainian cities, permit widespread software piracy. Another common type of internet piracy is online ordering sites, where pirates sell illegal CDs and DVDs for mail or personal delivery to customers. ¶6. Ministry of Interior officials have pointed to some successes in stopping online-ordering-site piracy, but admit that little, if anything, has been done to combat sites offering illegal filesharing/downloading, including so-called Peer-to-Peer and BitTorrent sites. GOU representatives have argued that Ukrainian law does not give law enforcement officials clear authority to shut down such websites, although sometimes ISPs can be persuaded to do so. However, the main obstacle to investigating and prosecuting these sites seems to be a lack of training and resources. Improving Police Capabilities -------------- ¶7. Matthew Lamberti, Department of Justice Intellectual Property Law Enforcement Coordinator for Eastern Europe and a prosecutor experienced in handling internet piracy cases, and Special Agent Kiffa Shirley, from the FBI's Cybercrime Fraud Unit, discussed basic strategies for investigating internet piracy. ¶8. Lamberti gave a presentation on investigating and prosecuting pirate websites, focusing on Ukraine and other countries in the region. Among other things, he showed numerous examples from pirate sites based in Ukraine and/or used in Ukraine. Lamberti noted that earlier this year one of the world's biggest pirate websites had moved to Ukraine, and that the founder of the site had stated that he was looking for a "suitable" home after being pressured to leave several other countries, including the Netherlands, Canada, and Malaysia. Lamberti cautioned that Ukraine might become a haven for pirate sites if it did not step up enforcement efforts. ¶9. Shirley gave a detailed briefing on the different kinds of websites that engage in internet piracy and the technology they employ. He also described the investigative steps he and other FBI agents took to investigate elitetorrents.org, a pirate website based in the United States that was known for its extremely fast illegal downloads. So far, that case has resulted in eight convictions. ¶10. Serhiy Lebid, head of the Economic Crimes Department at the Ministry of Interior, emphasized the importance of combating internet piracy during his opening remarks. Mumith Ali, from IFPI's London office, and Ihor Mykhaylov, from the Ukrainian Anti-Piracy Association (which is funded by the Motion Picture Association MPA),provided insight from the private sector. ¶11. Ali provided participants with strategies and best practices based on his experiences investigating some of the biggest pirate websites in Europe, including a UK-based private pirate website with 180,000 members notorious for offering illegal downloads of pre-release music albums. Prosecution of the owner of the site is currently pending in English Crown Court. Moreover, Ali gave a live demonstration of how people download illegal works from pirate websites. Ukrainian participants were particularly interested in Ali's description of a free computer program called "Wireshark" used by IFPI to investigate pirate sites; we are following up with the Ministry of Interior to provide more information on this program. Mykhaylov discussed the efforts the movie industry has made to combat internet piracy, and ways that police officers could obtain assistance from his group and others. He also discussed a number of particular sites currently based in and/or used in Ukraine offering pirate works. ¶12. In addition, to make the training workshop as hands-on and practical as possible, organizers divided participants into breakout groups to discuss one of two internet piracy case studies. Organizers based these case studies on actual internet piracy sites in Ukraine, as well as on specific issues and requirements presented by Ukrainian law in this area. At the conclusion of the workshop, several police officers made helpful presentations to participants on how they would investigate the case studies. Comment: Baby Steps -------------- ¶13. The Ukrainian participants were engaged in the discussion, and many officers asked pertinent questions during or after presentations. Yet unfortunately resource issues will continue to hamper enforcement efforts. For example, several police officers from the regions complained privately that they did not have access to the internet in their workplace. We are also concerned that the Prosecutor General's Office does not yet seem to have made internet piracy a priority. The workshop was a success in terms of focusing Ukrainian police on the problem of internet piracy and offering them some basic tools to do so. The police have a long way to go to develop a robust enforcement system, however. End comment. TAYLOR