Published time: June 01, 2013 17:34
In a move to fight online piracy flourishing in Russia, the Culture Ministry has threatened to fine not only internet providers and owners of websites, but also users of torrent web sites who upload content in violation of copyright.
Russia has one of the highest rates of piracy in the world, with
thousands of users preferring not to pay for the online content.
Perhaps it’s unsurprising with so many different online file
swappers and torrent websites offering people their favorite
tunes for free?
“For Russian people it’s kind of obvious to download music for
free on the Internet and they don’t have such a thing in their
mentality – to support artists they like, by buying records, CDs,
vinyl,” Yury Makarychev, lead-singer from On-The-Go band,
told RT.
Set to bring order to the area, the culture ministry has come up
with a strong bill to fight online piracy.
Under the draft, copyright owners would inform communications
operators of torrent users who upload music or videos illegally,
reported Kommersant daily. The operator would have 24 hours to
notify the copyright violator on the necessity to remove or block
illegal content. If the user ignores the demand, the operator
would be obliged to block access to the content within 12
hours.
Violators of the law would face fines: ordinary people would have
to shell out up to 5,000 roubles ($156) for pirated content, and
legal entities — up to a million roubles ($US
31,000).
Owners of websites, under the draft law, are also responsible for
the content posted on their source. The ministry plans to create
a special register with the information on intellectual property
protected by copyright. It is suggested that internet site owners
should use the register to make sure that content posted on their
source is legal.
This project has already sparked a wave of criticism from
IT-companies who accuse the authors of the law for a lack of
knowledge about technological processes on the
internet.
Pre-moderation of all user content is technically impossible
today “without a system collapse,” coordinator for legal
issues of the Russian Association of Electronic Communications,
Irina Levova told Itar-Tass. The requirement for an operator to
notify users of the file-sharing networks on the IP address is
actually not feasible, she said. Additionally, tracing of users
of the torrent trackers will require from the providers “not
only introducing the systems of deep package analysis, but also
develop sophisticated algorithms” that will take both time
and money.
Meanwhile, representatives of music and film-making businesses —
who suffer serious financial losses because of online pirates –
have welcomed the initiative.
“The financial losses are just as big as the black market
itself. And not only for cinema, but music, literature –
everything connected with intellectual property. It’s simply
impossible to calculate how much we all lose, until it’s made
illegal,” Karen Shakhnazarov film-maker, head of Mosfilm
Studios says.
The illegal media market doesn’t just sap the entertainment
industries’ profits, it also affects the way future projects are
financed, RT’s Egor Piskunov says. A big blockbuster movie needs
a big budget: the effects alone need major investment of both
craft and cash all aimed to completely transport the audience to
a whole other reality. But, right now, that movie magic is mainly
possible because of state funding since many private investors
are being scared off by the pirates.
In 2012, the Russian government invested 200 million dollars in
the film industry. But even that level of investment struggles to
tempt audiences back into theatres and away from the pirates.
“We believe that, without piracy, films would be able to
return twice the investment – state and private. While say one
month after a movie premieres in cinemas, it could be released
onto the web for free, but with adverts and legally,” says
Konstantin Ernst, head of Russian state TV Channel One.
Earlier this week, Russia’s Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky
asked President Vladimir Putin to support the anti-piracy bill.
This article originally appeared on: RT