UZBEKISTAN: SPECIAL 301 POINTS DELIVERED

UNCLAS TASHKENT 000611 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/CEN PASS TO USTR JENNIFER CHOE GROVES DEPARTMENT FOR EEB/TPP/IPE TIMOTHY R MCGOWAN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON ETRD KIPR UZ SUBJECT: UZBEKISTAN: SPECIAL 301 POINTS DELIVERED REF: STATE 42137 ¶1. (SBU) We delivered reftel points on the 2009 Special 301 results for Uzbekistan to Umid Shadiev in the MFA's North American Department. Shadiev received the points without comment and said he would forward the information to the relevant departments in the GOU. ¶2. (SBU) On Tuesday, April 28, Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Claudio Lilienfeld met with Deputy Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov, who also heads the Uzbek Telecommunications Agency. Aripov said the GOU would welcome any assistance the USG can give on IPR issues and in particular wants training for its IPR and copyright specialists. COMMENT: Aripov, unusually for an Uzbek official, admitted that there were difficulties with the Uzbek IPR regime, and his request for assistance sounded almost like a heartfelt plea. END COMMENT ¶3. (SBU) Last week Alisher Hafizov, Lead Specialist in the Department of Information Systems and Telecommunications at the Council of Ministers, told us that in 2007-08 over 5000 raids had been conducted in which more than 1.2 million pirated disks valued at $4 billion USD had been confiscated. Furthermore, the Cabinet of Ministers has formed a working group that brings together the heads of ministries and other administrative structures involved in IPR issues. The working group has adopted a plan for future measures to be taken in regard to violation of Uzbek laws on copyright violations. ¶4. (SBU) Hafizov also told us that beginning in May legal, licensed disks from Warner Brothers will go on sale in Tashkent. The Meloman Company in Kazakhstan, which has the rights to Warner Brothers products in that country, has sold a portion of its licensed disks to an Uzbek company. Hafizov told us that Uzbek consumers will want more licensed disks once they see that these are of much higher quality than the pirated disks that are universally available. Hafizov said that as the demand for licensed disks grows, it is his hope that other Western media companies will choose to enter the Uzbek market. Hafizov reminded us that the appearance of Warner Brother products in Tashkent will be the first time that licensed disks have ever gone on sale in Uzbekistan. NORLAND