Leader: Look to Russia

In the ongoing debate over how to enforce intellectual property rights on digital content, we have an interesting development from Russia.

According to Russian news reports, Moscow prosecutors will not press charges against AllofMP3.com, a website that sells copyrighted digital tunes for which the record labels say it does not have distribution rights.

Why? Because Russian copyright laws do not apply to digital media files such as MP3s, though they would cover physical media such as CDs and DVDs, says Russian news agency Tass.

The case could yet continue. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industries (IFPI), which has submitted a formal complaint about the site, has said it will pursue the case if Russian prosecutors do not.

But what's so interesting is the compromise position Russia is taking. Just as Moscow is located geographically between East and West, its intellectual property laws appear to also fall between the strict enforcement advocated by Europe and the US and the more lax approach to piracy in Asian countries such as China.

As digital media is so easily copied and shared across geographical borders via the internet, law enforcement will continue to struggle to locate and prosecute copyright infringers.

And in the end it may well be this sort of creative or compromise solution that rules the day.