Chiefs of major Russian movie companies have replied to Klimenko. They published open letter, where their position has been explained. Chiefs believe Klimenko made bold mistake. “Let’s think about together… Ghoul is deadman rising from a tomb, drinking blood of people and undermining household. Let us not concern such “ghouls” like Steven Allan Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Coen brothers…” Authors of letter expressed hope that Klimenko will bring his apologies for careless dropped phrase and right holders will accept them kindly. They are sure, Klimenko is ashamed of himself. They also stated their position in relation to piracy.
First of all “we don’t like to apply “pirate” image to illegal distributors of intellectual property, we call them thieves. … If there will be no movies, music, literature, theatre and other art – there will be no State. Intellectual property theft undermines basis of State and negatively affects prestige of intellectual activity in other fields, like science, technology, management etc. Literature, music, theatre, movies – it is professional activity and it must be paid. Investments in IP, like any other, must be paid back. … Some people think anyone can make movies using ordinary phone without professional skills. We believe you don’t think so. … Only theft brings profits without investments. Where thieves get profits from? They sell their traffic for advertisement. It is obviously why their “offer” is cheaper, therefore even advertisers like Ford, Mazda, Pepsi co, M-video are not so “innocent”. And such great companies like Google and Yandex help them, they refer to the stolen. We believe it is temporarily. Thieves dump; therefore damages from their activity are much more than their income. On legal traffic and direct sales legal services could make approximately 100 billion roubles in year. As long as these monies flow past right holders, Russian state has to provide cinema production with financial support. It turns out that you, Russian president’s counsellor on internet, call to fill thieves’ pockets with money, including state money. … So who are ghouls destroying households? You believe fight with thieves must be stopped only because people don’t have a lot of money in order to buy legal products. It is mistake. Most legal services are absolutely gratuitous for users. These services make money on advertisement or they are maintained by right holders, like television channels and studios. … The strangest thing is that your theses directly contradict Russian president’s position, position of its administration and relevant authorities. You are counsellor of Russian president. Perhaps counsellor must express paradoxical opinions, which will not affect political line. We also take in account a probability that your words were quoted or interpreted incorrectly. In any case we are disposed to cooperation, if you think it is necessary. We are also ready to explain our position in person.”