Russia to Adopt New Anti-Piracy Law

On June 21, the lower house of the Russian parliament approved a new anti-piracy law, expected to enter into force on August 1, 2013, if approved by the upper house of the parliament and following the president’s signature.

The law allows the court to block websites that provide pirated video content — movies and television series. The original draft of the law envisaged the same protection for all forms of copyrighted content, but the scope of protection has been reduced to video content only.

After the copyright holder files a complaint with a competent body regarding the suspected pirated content, the court can block the website or order the removal of the content, even before passing a formal ruling on whether the content was infringing.

If the website fails to comply with the court order, its address could be placed on a blacklist.

The law does not introduce sanctions against the users of the pirated content, only the distributors.

The law has reportedly outraged the Internet industry, while the music and software industries have expressed surprise over the exclusive rights of moviemakers.

The Moscow City Court will have exclusive jurisdiction in film piracy cases in Russia and some legal experts have expressed concern that this could overburden the court.

Prepared by: Jelena Jankovic

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Source: Russian International News Agency — RIA Novosti