RUSSIA
Russia will remain on the Priority Watch List in 2009. While Russia has made some progress in improving IPR protection and enacting necessary legislation, concerns remain, particularly with respect to Russia's slow implementation of some of its commitments in the November 2006 bilateral agreement on IPR ("IPR Bilateral Agreement").
The United States urges Russia to provide stronger enforcement against piracy and counterfeiting, which remain major concerns. The U.S. copyright industries estimate a loss in excess of $2.7 billion in 2008 due to copyright infringement, especially through online piracy, which has become an acute problem. Despite having closed down some illegal websites offering pirated music, many more have sprung up in their place. Complicating this situation are certain rogue "collecting societies" that negotiate "licenses" with these Internet sites, despite not having any authority to issue such licenses. We continue to urge the Russian Government, as part of its efforts to reform the legitimate collecting societies, to shut down those that are fraudulent. In addition, to help combat Internet piracy, we have urged the Russian Government to fully empower the Computer Crimes Unit of the Ministry of the Interior ("Department K") to combat copyright infringement that occurs on the Internet by providing investigation and prosecution guidelines for these crimes.
In the IPR Bilateral Agreement, Russia committed to fight optical disc and Internet piracy, protect against unfair commercial use of undisclosed test or other data generated to obtain marketing approval for pharmaceutical products, deter piracy and counterfeiting through criminal penalties, strengthen border enforcement, and bring its laws into compliance with WTO and international IPR norms. Russia's implementation of these IPR commitments will be essential to completing the final WTO accession process. While Russia has made some progress in implementation, additional work remains for Russia to fully implement its commitments under the IPR Bilateral Agreement. Specifically, the United States looks to Russia to make further progress by ensuring that the Russian Customs Code, Civil Code and Law on Medicines comply with the IPR Bilateral Agreement and the relevant TRIPS Agreement obligations that will take effect upon Russia's accession to the WTO.
On the positive side, Russia recently acceded to the WIPO Internet Treaties, and has made progress combating software piracy. In addition, the Moscow City Government has recently banned DVD/CD kiosks in the public transport system and pedestrian spaces, thus eliminating one major nexus of retail trade in pirated videos and music. Amendments to the Civil Code and Customs Code have been introduced into the Duma and are under active consideration. The United States-Russia Bilateral Working Group on IPR met in March 2009. The United States Government looks forward to future collaborative meetings to discuss how both governments can work to strengthen the protection and enforcement of IPR.
ALGERIA
Algeria will be added to the Priority Watch List in 2009. The United States is troubled by a law that took effect in Algeria on January 1, 2009 that bans numerous imported pharmaceutical products and medical devices in favor of local production in Algeria. This import ban prevents
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