Who's a Pirate? Russia Points Back at the U.S. (AK-47s)

NY Times ^ | July 26, 2004 | C. J. CHIVERS

[neverdem]

James Hill for The New York Times
Visitors hold an AK-47 rifle at the Russian Arms Expo this month in Nizhny Tagil.

Sergei Kivrin for The New York Times
Mikhail T. Kalashnikov said imitations are flooding the world market.

The New York Times
The Kalashnikov rifle is made in a factory in Izhevsk, Russia.

[Recovering_Democrat]

Mr. Pirate

[RasterMaster]

Note to Russian Scumbags: Quit selling to every two-bit dictators and terrorists and then you can b!tch. Perhaps you should deal with the fact that you have been "aiding the enemy" since your existence. All the weaponry found in Iraq comes from Russia, France and Germany. What about those "advisors" that were bombed in western Iraq heading for Syria? Russia is still the enemy!

[risk]

Respecting intellectual property is just good business. However, the Russians might do well to forgive and forget. We could sue them for damages on behalf of each human being killed by communist AK47s. Surely the number is in the scores of millions.

[tet68]

You got to love it, the feds can buy them for $60 while we are forced to pay $300 for simple semi-auto clones.

Hmmmmm, that parts kit is looking better and better.

[SirLurkedalot]

Kalashnikov is just pissed he never got any royalties.

[risk]

Speaking of which, you can buy an MP3 player that fits inside an AK47 magazine! Warning: racy pictures at the other end of this link.

clips and tracks: I'm cool with eses who got AK's in cases --Dr. Dre

But it's misidentified as an AK clip. It's actually more like something that would fit a Dragunov SVD.

[R. Scott]

Instead they have originated in weapons plants controlled by Eastern European states, each of which was a partner of Moscow's in Soviet days.

And licensed by the Soviet Union to produce the rifle.

Congressman have asked why American forces did not save money by reissuing to friendly forces the thousands of Kalashnikov rifles confiscated in both wars.
(Last spring, journalists from The New York Times watched United States marines collect tens of thousands of mint-condition Kalashnikovs in a cache in a hospital in Tikrit. The weapons were still in their original packing crates.)

Congressmen are asking a very good question. I wonder who’s making the middleman money from the new purchases.

Re - the caption, “Visitors hold an AK-47 rifle …” Shouldn’t it read “AK 74”?

[risk]

The Department of Homeland defense could make use of those!

[RasterMaster]

I say we only worry about royalties after Moscow and half their country glows in the dark. Only good Ruskie is, um...well ya know where this is going! F@%k the Russian commie scumbags!

[risk]

I don't see it that way. It was never the Russian people we hated, and we shouldn't hate them now. We never wanted to "nuke Russia," at least no one sane did. Wanting that would imply hate for the commoners, at least now that we have reasonable nuclear protocols in place and our ABM system is under development.

The Cold War? It'll be over when Russia and China are proposing pro-liberty UN resolutions, the DPRK and Iran are friendly regimes with happy, well-fed children, and Cuba has ceased to export revolution to the third world.

Meanwhile, I do think the Russians are coming around, slowly. They just need to show a little more effort on the international scene.

[R. Scott]

Pass out a few to us?

[sgtbono2002]

If the Russians are pirating Hollyweird productions I think thats great. The Commies they love so much taking money from their pockets.

[Jeff Gordon]

So, why don't we reissue all of those thousands of AK47 stashed all around Iraq? It seems to me that there should have been enough AK47s stashed around Iraq that we could export them for cash.

BTW: I love those RPGs. Seems like every Mujahidin gang has several of these babies. I want one. Think of the fun I could have at the local rifle range.

[A. Pole]

Copyright/patent laws are bad when they reduce profits for free traders. They are good when they increase profits. So what about Kalashnikov rifle infringements, are they good or bad?

[beef]

Any patents on the AK-47 would have run out in the 60's. I don't see how there could be any infringements. That said, if they make a better product in Russia, then that should go into the mix as well as the price.

[hiredhand]

If I remember correctly, the MIG-29 was largely copied from US by the Russians, and was copied from the F-15. In fact (and I'm thinking HARD) if I remember well, we caught them on several occasions stealing the technology back in the 80's. Does anybody else remember this?

I AM curious though....there's a company here in the US called Vulcan Arms Inc. (http://www.vulcanarms.com). They produce (amongh others) an AK-47 clone. I wonder what their word on this would be? :-)

What about every other firearms that's been copied on this planet?....the FN-FAL, numerous H&K models, the M-98 Mauser, Colt 1911 clones.

I do wonder though why the new Iraqi defense forces are equipping with AKs. Balistically, the 7.62x39mm cartridge is roughly equivalent to our .223 Rem (5.56 NATO). I suppose it's because of availability, but can't be certain.

The writer of this article is correct about AKs. I've had friends in the past who owned them, and they still functioned when they were dirtier, and hotter than anything else at the range. We've got a couple of Yugo M59/66 SKS rifles, and they "seem" to have this same reliability, although are notably more accurate. We've got some A-2 AR-15s as well, and they make me wonder why our military uses THAT rifle. Ah well...I'll always think it was a MISTAKE to replace the 7.62 NATO with that .223 Rem cartridge. ...sigh...

[blanknoone]

The Russkies are out of line on this one. Maybe, just maybe, they have an ever so slight point about copies made in America, but even then, the patent would have long ago run out. But the VAST majority of AKs are made in countries authorized/licesnsed by the USSR to make them. They gave away the licenses...can't go back now and try to get royalties for a design they gave away. Heck, they didn't only give away the licenses, they gave away entire factories.

The fact that these basics escaped the so called journalist who wrote this pap shows that they need to be sent back to elementary school to relearn all that logic that was indoctrinated out of them at J-school.

[Condor51]

"Balistically(sic), the 7.62x39mm cartridge is roughly equivalent to our .223 Rem (5.56 NATO)."

With all due respect, that's not quite so. Based on Remington Express Cartridges here's some data.

.223: 55 gr Pointed Soft Point, 3240 fps muzzle vel, 1282 ft-lbs of energy
7.62x39; 125 gr Pointed Soft Point, 2365 fps muzzle, 1552 ft-lbs of energy

Maybe you're thinking of the AK-74 that's chambered in the smaller 5.45x39mm caliber? (which I can't find the ballistic data on now)

No offense meant :-)

[hiredhand]

Ooops! I stand corrected. You are right. :-)