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RBC files copyright infringement lawsuit against Vedomosti seeking $10.7m compensation
Moscow, August 2, 2006 - ZAO RosBusinessConsulting, a wholly owned news agency of OAO RBC Information Systems (RTS, MICEX: RBCI), approached the Moscow Arbitration Court with a lawsuit against ZAO Business News Media, the publisher and founder of the Vedomosti newspaper. Preliminary hearings were scheduled for August 8, 2006. The lawsuit was initiated by the company's lawyers in response to illegal broadcasting, distribution and interpreting of information from RBC's fee-based news lines in the period from 2002 to 2005.
A total of 130 cases of unauthorized usage of information were revealed, of which 50 served as a subject of the lawsuit. Taking into consideration the long period and the seriousness of the violation of RBC's copyrights, the company considers RUR286.11m (approx. $10.7m) a reasonable compensation.
"We have always stuck to the principles of cooperation, kindness and respect in our relations with colleagues, i.e. other mass media sources. The company is quite liberal towards other mass media that are using free information from RBC's web site, since we all are in the same information environment. Moreover, we have always considered republication with reference to the source as an efficient instrument for mutual promotion. Having examined Vedomosti articles, our lawyers discovered numerous cases of unauthorized usage of RBC's intellectual property. These violations along with the hypocritical position of the Vedomosti newspaper urged us to initiate the lawsuit," RBC General Director Yury Rovensky said.
Investor contact: Natalia Makeeva
Tel: +7 (495) 363-1111 (ext. 1369), e-mail: ir@rbc.ru, Web: www.rbcinfosystems.com.
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