i like this article, about copyrights and copynorms in russia. in particular, the following quotation is great:

"It's part of the Soviet legacy," said Timothy Swanson, with the United States Embassy's commercial section here, which has been battling piracy on behalf of American film and music companies. "An artist was an artist — he got paid a salary. There weren't royalties for artists or composers. Everything was owned by the state — for 70 years intellectual property rights never existed."