I noticed in the news that there have been shutdowns of websites recently for selling fraudulent apparel etc, and allowing downloads of copywritten material.
Just got me wondering why copy handbags are worth going after, and copy AKs aren't. In light of the general attitude towards AK variants.
I think it has more to do with what the thing is purported to be. A fake Coach handbag is often sold as a Coach- yeah, most everybody knows it is a fake, but they aren't often clearly marked as replicas.
With the AK, nobody's even trying to pretend a Century build off a Romanian parts kit is a gen-yoo-wine Izhmash AK. Furthermore, the "real thing" isn't even legal here; the closest we can legally get are Saiga sporters.
It may also have to do with the actual numbers of AK variants in civilian hands- if we assume there's 10 million of them out there (just pulling numbers out of the air), we still aren't talking about huge amounts of royalties.
It looks like Russia is more concerned with royalties for military production, not licensing fees on civilian market rifles. Additionally, their concern seems to be pointed at nations that were formerly in their own sphere of influence back in the Soviet Union days. I wouldn't rule out that they don't care one bit about the licensing fees, it's more a way for them to thwack former allies upside the head and remind them that Russia still matters, much like they do regularly with natural gas supplies to Europe.
