ArmeniaNow.com, 12 March 2004
Cultural Theft: Despite laws, artists have little control over piracy and
use of their work
By Gayane Abrahamyan
ArmeniaNow arts reporter
Singers Aramo and Emma Petrosyan sold their apartment to produce their first
compact disc recording.
The husband and wife duo are among the most popular contemporary singers in
Armenia and there is demand for their art. But:
“Up to now, we have made only small profits from sales,” Aramo says.
The reason is not a lack of sales. It is, rather, a loss of control over
their product, due mostly to unenforced copyright laws.
Even though the singers hold copyright to their material, counterfeit copies
of the cds are pirated and sold at a fraction of the cost of the original
recording.
“People buy these poor-quality cds without even paying attention to the fact
that the cover is just a piece of black-and-white paper copied from the
original cover,” Emma Petrosyan says. “Meanwhile, Aramo spent several nights
with a designer sitting in front of a computer takings pains and troubles,
thinking and selecting between different colors, shades and hues.
“We dedicate our lives to every cd while thieves earn more than we by doing
nothing.”
Aramo and Emma are not alone in their disgust over the lack of protection of
intellectual property in Armenia and throughout the former Soviet Republics.
Research shows their anger is justified.
Foreign experts estimate that in 2002, piracy of recordings in Armenia
amounted to about $5 million.
Armen Azizyan, president of the Agency for Intellectual Property of Armenia
says 85 to 90 percent of audio, video and computer recordings sold in
Armenia are counterfeit copies.
Producer Grigor Nazaryan says a performer can expect to lose $15,000-20,000
from having a recording pirated. For that reason, local artists rely on
foreign sales to supplement the loses.
“Within recent years ‘pirates’ have become so strong and powerful that they
even begun printing high-quality covers and only producers can differentiate
the fake production from the original by the quality of the cd,” says
Nazaryan.
And the pirating network is well connected.
Rock band “Oascen Ham” produced a cd in France . But before it was even on
the market there, band leader Vahagn Papayan found a pirated copy for sale
in Yerevan .
Papayan asked the seller where he got the cd. “He said to me ‘Do you think
I’m so stupid to tell you where I got it from? Take it or leave it’.”
Artists are convinced their work is victimized by mafia-controlled sources,
who are so powerful to avoid prosecution.
Yerevan lawyer Artur Varderesyan says the Ministry of Internal Affairs will
soon create a special project for dealing with the piracy problem. (For a
few years the government has been promising such intervention, however,
little has been done to realize anti-piracy enforcement.)
A London-based organization combats piracy in Russia, however, “Armenia is
not a threat to the outer world since Armenian pirate production, as a rule,
is not exported and is sold in the inside market. That proves the fact that
mostly it is the Armenian performers and authors who suffer from piracy,”
Azizyan says.
It is not, though, just the copyright thieves who profit from current
conditions. Television and radio companies and concert promoters use
artists’ material at will and typically without paying royalties.
The Constitution of Armenia includes a law ” On Copyright and Related
Rights”. During Soviet times, Moscow ‘s All-Union organization enforced
copyright laws. In 1994 the task was undertaken by the National Agency on
Copyright. Since 2001, the non governmental organization, Hayheghinak, has
monitored copyright matters in cooperation with the Agency for Intellectual
Property.
Senior specialist at Hayheghinak, Sona Vardanyan, says Armenian authors and
singers are unaware of their rights and acting laws.
“If they were aware, then before recording a song they would sign a contract
with the recording studio so that later they don’t illegally collect their
works in bad quality collections,” she says. “In many cases their songs are
used in commercials and they don’t demand a fee either because of not
knowing the law or because of acting on a ‘friendly’ relationship.”
Composer and singer Ruben Hakhverdyan is aware of artists’ rights, but is
disillusioned with hopes of seeing any enforcement.
“How can I protect my copyrights? Whoever opens his eyes starts singing my
songs and I don’t get a penny from it. I don’t give a damn about such
copyrights and such a country,” says Hakhverdyan angrily.
Unlike Hakhverdyan, songwriter Vahan Andreasyan is trying to protect his
rights through law, but according to him the laws of the jungle apply more
than laws of justice.
“It’s been three times that I tired to protect my rights in court but what’s
the good of it? The weaker one is always guilty,” says Andreasyan.
Many artists working in Armenian pop music genre, in particular Andreasyan,
the author of lyrics for Artur Grigoryan’s songs, tried to get his fee
through the legal system. According to him during 10 to 15 concerts a month
at the State Theatre of Song there are at least three or four songs with his
lyrics, but it’s been 15 years and Andreasyan hasn’t received any payment.
“Before, there was no law, so we didn’t demand anything. But now that we
have these market relations, others started making money on my work, so I
demanded my share since I don’t know how to feed my family,” Andreasyan
says.
Andreasyan’s claim against the Theatre of Song ended in a decision in favor
of the Theatre. Its director, Artur Grigoryan, presented a letter from the
Minister of Culture, Youth Issues and Sport stating that most of the monthly
concerts at State Theatre of Song were charitable.
“Without checking, the judge trusted and believed that no concert tickets
have been sold and for my works that have been heard there for eight years I
was paid 6000 drams (about $10),” says Andreasyan shrugging his shoulders.
Hayheghinak director Susanna Nersisyan says its not easy, even with a law in
place, to convince TV and radio companies to pay royalties.
By law, TV and radio stations are obliged to pay two percent of their
monthly profit as royalties for material used.
According to the head of Radio Van company Shushanik Arevshatyan, two
percent is too much for the company to pay.
“We have agreement with Hayheghinak to pay 30,000 drams (about $50) monthly
within several months with presenting a list of songs and authors played
during a month,” says Arevshatyan.
TV companies are also not paying the required amount; paying instead about
$90 a month for materials.
“However, next year we’re planning to increase that sum and to take the
legal two percent with the help of which we’ll be able to pay the authors
fairly,” says Nersisyan.
Hayheghinak divides the money taken from different TV/radio companies
according to the presented list. They also take into account frequency and
length of songs. Also, due to some mathematical actions approved by law, the
sum gets divided among the authors.
“If some refuse to present a list of songs broadcasted by them, then we have
no choice but to follow TV or radio broadcasts in order to write down the
names of songs and authors,” adds Nersisyan.
Tired of copyright violations composer Hasmik Manaseryan complains that she
gets nothing in return for so many of her songs played. She recalled that
only once “three years ago I was called and told that as composer I have to
receive 800 drams ($1.5) while during Soviet years I would make a lot of
money.”
Composer Hasmik Manaseryan says she gets nothing for her work. However, she
is not so upset with the fact that she does not get her fees as with the
fact that her works are played in a distorted way.
“So often I hear my songs performed by this or that ungifted singer, who
doesn’t even know what and whose song he or she is singing,” says
Manaseryan. “For instance, one singer performs the song ‘Who Do I Give My
Flowers To?’ in a terribly changed manner, let alone the fact that in the
video, for some unknown reason someone gets killed, somebody else calls
ambulance” In a word the song is spoiled and the video does not correspond
to it.”
Besides singers, film producers are also unhappy with current conditons.
Movie director Albert Lazarian points out with anger that on December 7
last year his movies were shown eight times on Armenian TV channels, and he
cannot tell the number during other days.
“My movie ‘Merry Bus’ is right now being sold in Germany , the US , Greece ,
without any right on that. But I am the owner of that movie. You trouble
yourself over it, shoot a movie and then someone you don’t know makes money
on it. It’s impossible to prevent that piracy,” says director Albert
Lazarian.
The same displeasure is expressed by movie director Ruben Gevorgyan
according to whom an artist gets terribly discouraged and desperate when
something created from his blood, his life and his soul is being negligently
shown, no matter if it’s appropriate or not. “And we find out about it not
in case of a fee, but in case when there isn’t any.”
—

Kazakh foreign minister condemns Armenian officer’s killing
Mediamax news agency
12 Mar 04
YEREVAN
Kazakh Foreign Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev has sent a letter to his
Armenian counterpart Vardan Oskanyan where he condemns the brutal
killing of Armenian officer Gurgen Markaryan by an Azerbaijani
serviceman in Budapest.
The press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry told Mediamax news
agency today that Tokayev says in the letter that “we condemn the
inhumanity and savageness of this incident and believe that similar
actions cannot be justified”.
At 0500 [0100] on 19 February, Sr Lt Ramil Safarov of the Azerbaijani
armed forces, who was attending English language courses as part of
NATO’s Partnership for Peace programme, brutally killed Lt Gurgen
Markaryan (born in 1978) of the Armenian armed forces while he was
asleep.

Armenian leader favours reopening of railway via Georgia’s Abkhazia
Mediamax news agency
12 Mar 04
YEREVAN
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan spoke in favour of making
“strenuous efforts” to resume railway communications via Abkhazia.
Speaking at a briefing in Yerevan today, Robert Kocharyan said that a
resumption of railway communications via this route was “of benefit to
everyone – Georgia, Abkhazia, Armenia and Russia”, Mediamax news
agency reports.
The Armenian president said that in order to tackle this issue, one
should display the will and overcome the peculiar “custom, when any
attempt to upset the existing status quo threatens to cause fresh
internal problems”. At the same time, Kocharyan said that Armenia
understands Georgia’s position on this issue.
President Mikheil Saakashvili said that the resumption of the railway
communications via the Abkhaz section should take place in parallel
with the return of Georgian refugees to Abkhazia, particularly to Gali
District. The Georgian leader said that official Tbilisi was ready for
“more decisive steps to find a peaceful solution to this conflict and
to the problem of resuming regional transport communications”.

A1 Plus | 21:31:13 | 12-03-2004 | Politics |
GEORGIAN PRESIDENT MIKHAIL SAAKASHVILI IN ARMENIA
On Friday, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili arrived for a two-day
visit in Yerevan at Armenian President Robert Kocharyan’s invitation.
The Presidents of Armenia and Georgia expressed satisfaction with the fact
that, during the visit, they exchanged the ratification documents of the
October 23, 2001 Agreement on Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Security
between the Republic of Armenia and Georgia. They reiterated Armenia’s and
Georgia’s desire to give a new impetus to the further development of
extensive cooperation and friendly relations based on mutual respect for
each other’s interests.
Taking into consideration the obligation to address various modern
challenges and threats, such as international terrorism, organized crime,
weapons and drugs trafficking, the parties noted the need for increasing the
effectiveness of bilateral and multilateral cooperation and coordinating the
joint efforts in those areas.
Georgian President expressed his gratitude to the Armenian side for the
constructive dialogue and hospitality, and invited the President of the
Republic of Armenia to pay an official visit to Georgia at any convenient
time.
Mikhail Sahakashvili also met with Armenian Prime Minister Andranik
Margaryan.
—

Georgian leader offers help to improve Armenian-Turkish ties
Mediamax news agency
12 Mar 04
YEREVAN
“We would like to make our own contribution to the process of
normalizing Armenian-Georgian relations,” Georgian President Mikheil
Saakashvili said in Yerevan today.
During his forthcoming visit to Ankara, he is ready to discuss the
prospects for the restoration of transport communications that link
Turkey with Armenia, including the Kars-Gyumri railway, Saakashvili
told Mediamax today. However, he noted that “in the long-run,
everything will depend on the good will of the Turkish authorities”.
Saakashvili said that Turkey could play an important role in
stabilizing the situation in the region and is interested in good
relations with all the countries of the region, including Armenia.
For his part, Armenian President Robert Kocharyan said that the
restoration of the Kars-Gyumri railway would be of benefit not only to
Armenia and Turkey, but also to Georgia and Russia.
“We would be grateful to our Georgian colleagues if they included
these issues in their agenda during their negotiations in Turkey,”
Kocharyan said.

Cleveland Plain Dealer, OH
March 12 2004
Debuts abound with sounds to delight the musical patron
Donald Rosenberg
Plain Dealer Music Critic
It is almost impossible to fathom that Dmitri Shostakovich wrote his
extraordinary Symphony No. 1 when he was 19. And it is equally hard
to figure out how Sergey Khachatryan, who is 19, can play Sibelius’
Violin Concerto with such astonishing mastery.
But there they were, the Russian composer and the Armenian violinist,
on the Cleveland Orchestra’s program Thursday night at Severance
Hall, providing an audience with wondrous sounds and musical ideas.
The concert held no fewer than three debuts: Khachatryan, guest
conductor Robert Abbado and Susan Botti’s “Impetuosity,” a world
premiere.

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No one will argue if discussion of the violinist’s achievement comes
first. Khachatryan brought to the Sibelius concerto a blend of tonal
allure, emotional urgency and interpretive truth that lifted the
piece to the stratosphere.
Sibelius is not the composer a young violinist might be expected to
turn to when starting out on a career. The concerto challenges even
the most mature artists, its austerity of design and subtlety of
romantic expression calling for a musician of unusual insight.
Khachatryan defied every stereotype of youth. He probed deeply
beneath phrases to find the essence of Sibelius’ meaning. His
lustrous tone projected beautifully at all volumes.
The performance, quite simply, was sensational, the kind of
experience that comes along with woeful infrequency. Let’s hope
Khachatryan returns soon and often.
In the Sibelius and the night’s other works, Abbado conducted in
large, fluid gestures, sometimes drawing meaty sonorities but also
letting details become fuzzy. The Shostakovich, which should be
alternately sardonic and impassioned, received only middling
treatment, with too much vague shaping and unsettled ensemble pulling
the score to the ground.
Luckily, Botti’s “Impetuosity” remains airborne for most of its
invigorating 10 minutes. The composer, who grew up in Cleveland and
now serves on the faculty at University of Michigan, maintains a bold
and fresh sense of motion in this score. Sounds fly by in a swirl,
waltz gleefully about and head off on jazzy tangents. The only moment
of repose is a solo for the concertmaster, who has a dandy workout
before the orchestra resumes its mysterious and jaunty ride.
The program began with a performance of Haydn’s Symphony No. 93, in
which Abbado lavished attention on dynamics and matters of phrasing.
On the plus side, he reduced the strings to chamber-orchestra
proportions, entreated the timpani to bring utmost focus to pitches
using hard sticks, and enjoyed Haydn’s jokes.
Elsewhere, Abbado resorted to all sorts of mannerisms rather than
allow Haydn to reveal his felicitous surprises in all their natural
grace and humor.
The program is repeated at 8 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.

Press Herald, ME
March 12 2004
Different countries, same goal
By MATT WICKENHEISER, Portland Press Herald Writer
Staff photo by John Patriquin

Marina Kalysh, who operates a lucrative tile business in Russia, has
been observing business practices at Paul G. White Tile Co. in
Portland. Speaking of the way Dave Beattie, the manager of Paul
White, interacts with his employees, Kalysh says, “He managed to
build a real crew. They lead the business together.” Kalysh is part
of a cultural exchange run by Southern Maine Community College.

Marina Kalysh and Dave Beattie both sell tile, but the similarities
between the two entrepreneurs mostly end there.
She runs a 15-person shop in Smolensk, Russia, that caters almost
exclusively to high-end customers. Her division, Skvirel Stroy
Setvic-Smolensk, comprises designers who only sell tile. They don’t
deal with carpet, they don’t measure rooms for proper fits, and they
don’t install their goods.
Beattie is the manager of Paul G. White Tile Co. Inc. of Portland,
and has 85 people working for him. His shop is full service, helping
customers who might rent a small efficiency in Portland or own a Cape
Elizabeth mansion with everything from choosing tile or carpet to
installation.
Despite their differences, or maybe because of them, the two have
learned from each other during the last month as they worked together
through a Southern Maine Community College program. The initiative
brought 10 small-business managers from Russia to the Portland area.
One of the big things Kalysh learned during her stay was how
salespeople need to focus on politeness and patience with customers
in a shop, she said. Kalysh also sat in with Beattie as he bargained
with suppliers for lower prices, and discussed advertising strategies
with local media outlets. She observed his management style, and saw
how he joked with his staff, making the workplace a bit more
enjoyable.
“He managed to build a real crew,” said Kalysh. “They lead the
business together.”
Since 1995, SMCC’s Community Connections program has brought more
than 200 businesspeople to Portland from countries that were once
part of the Soviet Union, according to Debra Andrews, director of the
Center for Global Opportunities at the college.
“It’s an intercultural sharing,” said Andrews.
The main goal of the program is to show entrepreneurs from the former
Soviet Union how business is conducted in the United States, giving
them ideas on how to strengthen their home marketplaces. In addition
to businesspeople, legal professionals, local government officials
and nongovernmental organization leaders participate.
“In a nutshell, at the end of the Cold War, we didn’t need the budget
to fight the Cold War,” explained Andrews. “The State Department saw
an opportunity to do something proactive instead of reactive: ‘Let’s
help support these former Soviet republics as they’re growing their
economies and creating their constitutional democracies. Let’s bring
them over and show them how things work in this country.’ ”
Andrews has been running the program since 1995. It is one of 50 such
programs across the United States and the only one in Maine.
Participants must speak English and be a manager at a small business.
Andrews and her staff pick the participants, secure for each a host
family where they will live for the month, and identify businesses
that are similar to the ones they run in their home countries. Most
of the companies participating in the Portland area are small, said
Andrews, and receive an opportunity for a firsthand look at another
culture that is often only available to workers for multinational
firms.
“It gives we (Americans) who grew up in the U.S. and thought the
Soviet Union was bad, bad, bad a chance to meet these people,” said
Andrews. “Your world view is broadened.”
Beattie, for example, said his perception of business in Russia was
from television images of long lines at grocery stores that didn’t
have enough bread for their customers. Talking to Kalysh, he learned
she operates a lucrative business in a city of 550,000 people, he
said.
“Things are similar, but dissimilar,” he said.
Beattie said he suggested to Kalysh that to deal with competition,
she find small services that set her apart from the other operations.
For instance, he said, none of the tile shops in Kalysh’s city offers
labor, only sales.
By hiring some tile installers, or even by carrying an area carpet
line, she may boost business, he said.
“If she grasps one of those and makes it work, that will be a major
change in her business,” he said.
For Kalysh, who’s only been in the tile business for a few months,
“any kind of experience is useful.”
Andrews said a group of Armenian businesspeople would be visiting for
a month in April, the first time participants from that country would
take part in the program in Maine. The federal program started in
1994 as “Business for Russia,” with opportunities only for residents
of that country. The program was so successful it was expanded and
renamed, and today also includes participants from Belarus, Armenia,
Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Ukraine and
Uzbekistan.
The initiative is fully funded by the State Department’s Bureau of
Educational and Cultural Affairs, said Andrews.
“It beats paying for the Cold War, I think,” she said.
Andrews said the program tries to emphasize four main points to the
businesspeople, and asks the businesses they visit to reinforce them.
Prepare for success with a good strategic plan.
Do well by doing the right things and giving back to the community.
Develop the employee base.
Focus on both external customers and internal customers, such as
employees.
On a recent State Department trip to Ukraine, Andrews said she found
out that the lessons that had been learned in the United States by
previous program participants are paying off.
She contacted a program alumnus whose company makes microsensors that
regulate temperatures in different appliances. Five years ago, the
man spent time with a manager at a local McDonald’s restaurant, and
that experience gave him the motivation to contact the McDonald’s
restaurants opening in his country, Andrews said. Today, the chain is
one of his major clients.
Additionally, Andrews said, the man took the program’s four main
points to heart. He now gives his employees their birthdays off and
offers paid time off when a worker experiences a death in the family
or other personal problem.
Staff Writer Matt Wickenheiser can be contacted at 791- 6316 or at:
[email protected]

The Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS (FJC), Russia
March 12 2004
Jewish Community of Armenia Helps Musician
YEREVAN, Armenia – Jewish community in Armenia helped in production
and release of ‘Exodus’ CD by Yerevan-based singer-songwriter Willy
Weiner.
This unique album and the upcoming gala-concerts to be given in
Yerevan and Moscow, present an enormous opportunity for the Jewish
community of Armenia and Willy Weiner to raise awareness about Jewish
people and their culture.
While the Jewish community in Armenia is relatively small, it has
established the ‘Menorah’ Jewish Cultural Center, headed by the
composer.
Weiner celebrated news of the album release with the Yerevan Jewish
community, presenting a concert for members based on his latest
project “Jewish Traditional Classical Music in Armenia”.
‘Exodus’ is the latest of three albums by Willy Weiner based on
classical Jewish orchestral pieces, the other two being ‘Chalom’ and
‘Ami’.

Armenian paper points to growing racism in society
Aravot, Yerevan
12 Mar 04
Text of unattributed report by Armenian newspaper Aravot on 12 March
headlined “Official racism”
“The increase in anti-Armenian sentiments in Azerbaijan and its
consequences cannot be an excuse for spreading racist and chauvinistic
ideas that are characteristic of our society,” the Civic Society
Institute, the Yerevan Press Club, the Helsinki Committee and the
Caucasus Centre for Peaceful Initiatives said in a joint statement
published in the press yesterday. The authors of the statement are
anxious about “irresponsible statements by some Armenian politicians
and public figures” who make unacceptable generalizations with regard
to the whole Azerbaijani people.
The chairman of the foreign relations committee of the National
Assembly, Armen Rustamyan, and the leader of the Republican Party’s
parliamentary faction, Galust Saakyan, are these “irresponsible
figures”. The authors of the statement think that statements by
officials who have such a high political level and represent the
ruling coalition are more than unacceptable because they may be
understood to be the official position of our country. In turn, this
will create new obstacles for a peaceful settlement to the Karabakh
issue. It is natural that the statement by these four public
organizations will meet with resistance from our nationalistic
circles: how can racism and chauvinism be to blame if we have to live
in an atmosphere of permanent hatred, hostility and revenge in order
to preserve our national originality?
The president of our country has expressed almost the same
idea. According to him, the Budapest incident [the killing of an
Armenian officer] testifies to the fact that Armenophobia has reached
a physiological level in Azerbaijan. If the country’s president
expresses such ideas and if he in fact says during a meeting with
students that the Azerbaijanis have innate pathological Armenophobia,
which makes them reach for an axe when they meet an Armenian, there is
no need to complain about Rustamyan and Saakyan. The authors of the
joint statement are wrong as racist and chauvinistic ideas have been
an ordinary thing in our society for a long time. They are being
stimulated by the official ideology and propaganda.

Armenian, Georgian presidents pleased with first meeting
Mediamax news agency
12 Mar 04

YEREVAN
The presidents of Armenia and Georgia, Robert Kocharyan and Mikheil
Saakashvili, are pleased with their first meeting that took place in
Yerevan today.
Speaking at a briefing in Yerevan, the Armenian and Georgian leaders
said that they had discussed mutual relations, regional and
international problems.
Armenian President Robert Kocharyan said that he and Mikheil
Saakashvili had agreed that the leaders of the two countries would
meet often, moreover not only in the course of visits or within the
framework of international forums. “We have also decided to have
informal contact,” Robert Kocharyan said.
Saakashvili said that his “impression was exclusively positive” of
Robert Kocharyan. “Armenia is fortunate to have such a president,”
Saakashvili said. He believes that Robert Kocharyan is “an ideal
partner” for Georgia.