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RR RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
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DE RUEHTL #0090/01 0641334
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 041334Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY TALLINN
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0528
INFO RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 05 TALLINN 000090 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EB/TTP/IPE BOGER, FOR EUR/NB GROVES 
DEPT PLEASE PASS TO USTR FOR LMOLNAR 
DOC FOR ITA/MAC/OIPR CASSIE PETERS 
DOC PLEASE PASS USPTO 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETRD KIPR ECON EUR EN
SUBJECT: ESTONIA - VOLUNTARY INPUT FOR 2008 SPECIAL 301 
 
REF: A) STATE 9475  B) 07 TALLINN 66 C) 08 Tallinn 79 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary: In 2007, the Government of Estonia 
(GOE) continued to improve the country's IPR regime 
through legislative changes and cooperation with rights 
holders. Major changes to IPR legislation were 
introduced in March, when the Law Amending the Penal 
Code and Copyright Act came into force. In 2006, the 
Estonian Parliament ratified the World Phonogram 
Producers Treaty and the World Copyright Treaty. 
However, the ratification letters have not been 
submitted, due to the decision that the European 
Community should submit the letters simultaneously. 
While traditional forms of piracy continued to 
decrease, Internet piracy in tech-savvy Estonia is an 
ever-growing concern that calls for better training of 
police, prosecutors and judges.  In 2007, the embassy 
and the American Chamber of Commerce's IPR committee 
sponsored several events which directly support Embassy 
Tallinn's FY2009 MSP goal of Promoting Economic 
Prosperity through IPR education and enforcement. End 
Summary. 
 
¶A. NOTORIOUS MARKETS 
 
¶2.  (U) There are no notorious markets for 
counterfeited goods in Estonia. 
 
¶B. Optical Media Piracy (CDs, VCDs, DVDs) 
 
¶3.  (U) In 2007, optical media piracy in Estonia 
continued to decline.  The days of large-scale trade in 
pirated materials are long gone. According to Estonia's 
only anti-piracy NGO, the Estonian Organization for 
Copyright Protection (EOCP), the physical market for 
pirated audio-video items has decreased significantly, 
including the harbor area, which over the past year has 
been under special police surveillance. 
 
¶C. Use/Procurement of Government Software 
 
¶4.  (U) The use of software in government offices is in 
compliance with national and international copyright 
standards.  According to the GOE Informatics Center, 
every government office has designated a person/section 
to be responsible for information systems, including 
procurement and development of software. The GOE 
implements rules and regulations for government 
software procurement. 
 
¶D. TRIPS compliance, FTA Implementation and Other IP- 
Related Issues 
 
¶5.  (U) Estonia continues to make progress on 
promulgating IPR-related legislation. Major changes to 
were introduced on March 15, when the Law Amending the 
Penal Code and Copyright Act (LAPCCA) came into force. 
The LAPCCA classifies trade in pirated copies as a 
crime even when it occurs for the first time 
(previously it was only a misdemeanor). Also the 
maximum penalty for legal persons for violating the 
Copyright Act was increased from USD 5,000 to USD 
50,000.  However, according to the LAPPCA the use of 
pirated copy for a public performance or public display 
of the work or for communication is a misdemeanor, 
unless committed for commercial purposes.  This 
classification is posing difficulties for the 
investigation of IPR crimes in the digital environment 
- under Estonian legislation, no criminal investigative 
techniques (such as going undercover and surveillance) 
may be used when investigating a misdemeanor act. 
 
¶6.  (U) In November 2007, the Parliament passed 
Amendments to the Electronic Communication Act (AECA), 
implementing the EU Data Retention Directive. The AECA 
will provide the legal basis to acquire user log 
information from internet service providers and thus 
contribute to the information exchange and cooperation 
with law enforcement agencies in the fight against 
internet piracy.  The AECA will come into force on 
March 15, 2009. 
 
¶7.  (U) On June 21, 2007 the Cabinet passed a decree to 
form an IPR Committee under the Ministry of Culture 
(MOC). The Committee replaced the previous IPR Expert 
Committee as its five-year term expired.  No major 
changes occurred, as the new Committee is continuously 
 
TALLINN 00000090  002 OF 005 
 
 
chaired by the Media and Copyright Department of the 
MOC and consists of representatives from the Ministry 
of Justice, the Estonian Performers' Union, EOCP, 
Estonian Public Broadcasting, the Ministry of Finance, 
the Law School of Tartu University, the Estonian 
Authors' Society, the MOC, the Publishers' Association, 
the Business Software Alliance and the Estonian 
Phonogram Producers Association. The role of the 
Committee is to report to the Cabinet on the IPR 
situation in Estonia bi-annually and make 
recommendations how to improve the IPR regime. A new 
function of the Committee is to serve as an 
extrajudicial authority for conciliation proceedings on 
IPR cases. 
 
¶8.  (U) In 2006, the IPR Expert Committed proposed to 
draft a new Copyright Act.  The current Copyright Act 
dates from 1992 and has been amended 20 times.  The aim 
of the new Copyright Act is to harmonize the language, 
restructure the Articles and add new regulations for 
authors from the Soviet era.  However, the drafting of 
the new law was suspended in 2007, as the GOE still 
needs to address issues related to protection of works 
from the Soviet area and orphan works sooner than in 
the four-year average time for adoption of a complex 
law such as the Copyright Act. 
 
¶9. (U) In 2007, the Ministry of Internal Affairs 
initiated a Development Plan for Estonian Internal 
Security, 2009-2013 that our contacts say will also 
include IPR as a priority.  Currently, the basis of the 
Plan, the Estonian Security Guidelines for 2008-2015, 
is awaiting Parliament's approval.  The guidelines 
require an upgrade in the capacity of law enforcement 
authorities to fight against crimes in the digital 
environment, including IPR violations. 
 
¶10. (U) In 2007, two optical disc plants continued 
production in Estonia: 'Digibox' in Tartu and the 
Lithuanian-owned Baltic Optical Disc (BOD) plant in 
Tallinn.  The managers of these companies have declared 
that their IPR activities fully comply with copyright 
laws, they work very closely with IPR organizations, 
and are actively involved in anti-piracy actions. The 
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry 
(IFPI) has taken samples of the mold of the CD/DVD 
lines of both of the plants located in Estonia and 
provided them with mold Source Identification Codes 
(SID). 
 
¶11. (U) While Estonia has no legislation mandating the 
use of SIDs on locally manufactured CDs, BOD and 
Digibox have each entered civil agreements with the 
Nordic Copyright Bureau (NCB) on IPR protection. 
According to the EOCP, such agreements between the IPR 
organizations and producers have proven to be very 
effective.  As source identification in Estonia is 
regulated by civil agreements, the GOE does not 
anticipate making SID provisions mandatory by law. 
According to the MOC however, the GOE will consider 
this step if the production situation in Estonia 
changes. 
 
¶E. DATA PROTECTION 
 
¶12. (U) Estonia's data protection, including 
undisclosed test data submitted by pharmaceutical 
companies, is in full compliance with data protection 
in the European Union.  There have been no reports of 
marketing approvals against unfair commercial use or 
about marketing approvals granted for generic copies of 
patent infringing pharmaceutical products. 
 
¶F.  PRODUCTION, IMPORT AND EXPORT OF COUNTERFEIT GOODS 
 
¶13. (U) Seizures of CDRs with pirated materials at 
local shopping centers show that there is some domestic 
production in Estonia.  However, law enforcement 
agencies as well as anti-piracy groups consider 
Estonian more a transit country than a source country 
for counterfeit goods.  According to Estonian Customs, 
most of the IPR-infringing goods that have been 
detected have been in transit to Russia.  Only a small 
quantity of pirated goods was transported from Russia 
to the European Union Customs territory via 'suitcase 
piracy'. 
 
 
TALLINN 00000090  003 OF 005 
 
 
¶G.  ENFORCEMENT 
 
¶14. (U) In 2007, the Estonian Tax and Customs Board 
detected 91 cases of counterfeit goods, seizing 53,007 
items in total.  The largest cases involved toys 
(Marvel Comics characters, Legos, Shell Brands 
International, etc.) in which authorities seized some 
13,688 items. Also, spare parts for cellular telephones 
form another big category in Estonian Customs' fight 
against IPR infringement.  In 2007, they seized 9,658 
of these items.  However, our contacts say that rights 
holders rarely initiate legal proceedings in cases 
where only small quantities of their own goods are 
detected, as industry considers the proceedings too 
time consuming relative to the perceived benefit of 
pursuing them. 
 
¶15. (U) Industry representatives, particularly the ones 
located in Estonia have not been active submitting 
annual applications to Customs which allow Customs to 
seize suspected pirated goods on their behalf. (Note: 
These applications are required in accordance with 
European Council Decision EC1383/2003 of July 2003. End 
Note)  To date, industry has submitted roughly 450 
applications, the vast majority of which come from 
trademark representatives.  Most of these applications 
are valid throughout the entire EU, and are submitted 
outside Estonia.  All applications submitted by the 
EOCP, which represents the music and film industry, 
have expired. The Business Software Alliance has not 
submitted a single application.  Without such 
applications, Customs can make ex-officio seizures of 
suspected goods for a maximum of three days, which is 
generally an insufficient time to determine whether the 
goods are pirated. 
 
¶16. (U) In 2007, 20 officers of the Central Criminal 
Police were investigating solely IPR crimes, initiating 
66 criminal cases and 12 misdemeanor cases.  They 
organized 14 raids in cooperation with EOCP.  In one 
April 2007 instance, a raid of a private apartment 
netted a seizure of more than 1,000 pirated PS2 CD/DVDs 
from a person offering Sony PlayStation 2 'mod- 
chipping' services through magazines and websites.  In 
addition to police raids, the EOCP carried out 145 
control visits to video and music shops and shopping 
centers.  While no legal action can be taken on the 
site without the police, these raids serve well as 
preventive measures.  In total in 2007, the EOCP gave 
expert opinions on 10,051 different audio-video media 
carriers, mostly seized by the police and Customs. 
However, according to our police contacts, the 
reduction in seizures of pirated audio-video materials 
is due to falling demand on the local market. Customers 
who seek pirated materials consider the prices too 
high, when they can often get the same products over 
the internet for free. 
 
¶17. (U) The biggest problem in IPR enforcement is the 
lack of IP expertise in the Estonian prosecutor's 
office, which has made it a low priority issue. 
According to the EOCP, most criminal cases involving 
copyright infringements are terminated by the public 
prosecutors on the basis of lack of public interest in 
proceedings, and negligible guilt.  Also, our police 
contacts find investigation of IPR discouraging, as so 
many cases are dropped by the prosecutors. 
Furthermore, most judges lack IPR practice as few cases 
ever come before the courts.  In November 2007, 
however, a Harju County Court convicted a private 
person for reproducing (uploading) a pirated copy of 
the Estonian movie 'Klass' to a public server. (Note: 
In 2007, this movie won several awards at film 
festivals in Europe.  End note.) The court ordered the 
defendant to pay USD $1,300 in compensation to the 
state.  This is Estonia's first criminal sentence for 
uploading pirated material to a public File Transfer 
Protocol (FTP) server.  IPR NGOs have high hopes that 
this case may act as a precedent. 
 
¶H. TREATIES 
 
¶18. (U) In 2006, the Estonian Parliament ratified the 
two WIPO treaties pending since Estonia's accession to 
the EU: the World Phonogram Producers Treaty (WPPT) and 
the World Copy Rights Treaty (WCT).  However, according 
to a March 2000 decision, WPPT and WCT ratification 
 
TALLINN 00000090  004 OF 005 
 
 
letters from member states and the European Community 
should be submitted simultaneously.  Our contacts in 
MOC tell us that four EU member states have still not 
ratified these treaties, and currently there is no time 
frame when all ratification letters can be submitted. 
 
¶I.  INTERNET PIRACY AND COOPERATION WITH RIGHTS HOLDERS 
 
¶19. (U) In 2007, the Internet continued to be the 
biggest IPR challenge in Estonia, as in other countries 
with well-developed IT sectors.  While optical media 
piracy has shown a vast decline in recent years, the 
Internet has become the most active outlet for pirated 
material in Estonia, especially the FTP servers and 
peer-to-peer (P2P) systems.  The EOCP has concluded a 
memorandum of understanding (MOU) with ten major 
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) calling for the 
removal of illegal copyright materials from public FTP 
servers.  Still, there are small ISPs that offer their 
servers to swap music, films and software.  In April 
2007, the EOCP and two major ISPs in Estonia (Netpoint 
Systems and Elisa Eesti) concluded cooperation 
agreements.  The aim of these agreements is to 
anticipate and prevent infringement of copyrights and 
the rights related thereto on the Internet.  The 
agreements provide procedures for notice and takedown 
of piracy websites and FTP serves, allowing better 
control of large-scale FTP piracy in Estonia.  In 2007, 
the EOCP closed down 422 web sites and removed 155,906 
copyright-infringing files.  Also in 2007, EOCP issued 
39 warnings to hand-to-hand distributors that offer 
pirated copies through on-line magazines.  However, 
most of the music files were in foreign servers.  File 
sharing and P2P networks such as KaZaA, StreamCast, E- 
Donkey, E-Mule, and BitTorrent remain the largest 
source of Internet piracy in Estonia.  These networks 
are all located geographically outside of Estonia. 
 
¶20. (U) In 2007, Estonian telecom companies Elion and 
EMT opened a digital music store, which contains four 
million songs from 12,000 labels all over the world, 
including Universal, SonyBMG, EMI and Warner. Users can 
download a single track or the whole album, and price 
varies from $1.70 to $2.50 per piece.  The music store 
is available at EMT SurfPort and via the Internet at 
Elion's web portal http://muusika.hot.ee  Another 
network for legal downloads was set up by Estonian 
music producers at http://muusika24.ee 
 
------------------- 
¶J. POST'S ACTIVITIES 
-------------------- 
 
¶21. (U) Intellectual Property Rights protection remains 
a priority for Embassy Tallinn.  Post regularly uses 
all means available to help Estonia to improve its IPR 
regime.  On several occasions the Embassy has lobbied 
the GOE to continue to upgrade its IPR regime.  In 
2007, we sent a Senior District Prosecutor on an 
International Visitors Leadership Program (IVLP) on 
Protection of Intellectual Property Rights. 
 
¶22. (U) In 2007, two police officers, a Customs officer 
and a prosecutor attended courses at the U.S. Patent 
and Trademark Office's (USPTO) Global Intellectual 
Property Academy (GIPA).  The Estonian participants 
told us they valued all of these trainings highly, and 
they contributed to IPR law enforcement activities in 
Estonia.  These activities directly supported Embassy 
Tallinn's FY2009 MSP goal of Promoting Economic 
Prosperity through IPR education and enforcement. 
 
¶23. (U) On January 17-18, 2007, Embassy Tallinn and the 
USPTO held a workshop focusing on copyright 
infringement in the digital environment.  The event was 
a rare coming together of 60 Estonian police, 
prosecutors, judges, government officials, law 
professors and industry representatives.  The group 
discussed enforcement problems resulting from limits on 
investigative tools, the prosecutorial practice of 
dropping cases for lack of 'public interest', and the 
small size of the market.  Panelists shared valuable 
best practices and collaborated on techniques for 
pursuing Internet-based IPR criminals.  The event 
received wide media coverage in local TV and press, and 
accomplished its goal of raising IPR awareness. (Ref B) 
 
 
TALLINN 00000090  005 OF 005 
 
 
¶24. In 2006, on the basis of an embassy initiative, the 
American Chamber of Commerce in Estonia (AmCham) 
established an IPR Sub-Committee.  In 2007, in order to 
raise public awareness and promote IPR education, this 
committee hosted two seminars: one for teachers and one 
for small and medium businesses.  The seminar for 
teachers clearly demonstrated that there is a real need 
for IPR education in schools, something AmCham is now 
working to achieve.  The committee continues its work 
on IPR in schools, with embassy support.  On February 
6, 2008, the AmCham IPR Committee hosted a roundtable 
at the embassy titled 'How to raise IPR awareness in 
Schools' (Ref C).  The next IPR seminar for teachers 
will take place in April, when two U.S speakers will 
provide IPR training for Estonian teachers. 
 
PHILLIPS