Oleksandr Nikin, the head of the organization responsible for copyright protection in Ukraine, was arrested by Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) officers on Oct. 29 after allegedly attempting to bribe lawmaker Oleksandr Sanchenko to stop the passage of a new copyright bill.
The bill seeks to ensure that local artists receive fair profit for their music. To suspend its approval, Nikin allegedly tried to bribe Sanchenko, who chairs the parliamentary committee regulating the Ukrainian music industry, but was caught by the SBU.
Sanchenko is a member of the ruling Servant of the People party, which has 244 seats in parliament.
According to anonymous sources from Ukrainian law enforcement who talked to news website Babel, Nikin allegedly offered a bribe to Sanchenko through his assistant.
The SBU said that Nikin was ready to pay the lawmaker $100,000 every year for an undetermined length of time if he could nudge parliament to postpone or amend the new copyright bill.
Now, SBU officers will investigate the case in order to give Nikin a note of suspicion. After that, they will be able to charge him with wrongdoing.
According to the non-profit Anti-Corruption Action Center, it is the responsibility of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine rather than SBU to investigate this case, given the amount of the bribe. “It can be a serious problem in court, as the pre-trial investigation is conducted by an unauthorized body,” the non-profit stated.
Neither Nikin nor Sanchenko responded to the Kyiv Post’s request for comment at the time of publication.
According to the SBU, Nikin didn’t like the new copyright bill, which the Ukrainian parliament submitted on Oct. 19, because it eliminates the organization that he leads. The organization charges fees for playing Ukrainian music in places like cafes or shopping malls.
Ukrainian artists were supposed to receive most of the money from these fees because they own rights to their music. However, according to the SBU, Nikin and his allies created a chain of fake companies that acted as intermediaries between the organization that collects fees and artists.
As a result, musicians received money from these fake companies, which allegedly took part of the artists’ profits for themselves. The SBU stated that Nikin decided to allocate $100,000 for a bribe from the budget of these fake companies.
“Where did this money come from? From us, artists!,” said Taras Topolya, frontman of the popular Ukrainian band “Antytila,” who first wrote about Nikin’s bribe. “We are being robbed under our noses!” he said.
Poor copyright protection is a perennial problem in Ukraine. While Ukrainian citizens are reluctant to pay for legal music, books and movies, there are few laws helping to fight piracy or copyright infringement.
Ukrainian artists also receive less money for their work than European or American colleagues because they have no legal protection from corrupt intermediaries. A new copyright bill aims to fix this problem. Ukrainian musicians, writers and artists all voted to support it.
“The Ukrainian music industry has money, but nine out of 10 Ukrainian artists have never received it,” said Topolya. “That is why we support the bill and ask Ukrainian lawmakers to vote for it,” said Valeriy Kharchyshyn, frontman of the rock band “Druha Rika,” in a joint video recorded by the Ukrainian musicians on Oct. 18.
