New Russian anti-p2p laws
p2pnet.net News:- Amendments aimed at cracking down on digital pirates in Russia went into effect today.
The new additions make it illegal to share copyrighted material online.
Until today, there was no law in Russia that protected copyright holders from internet piracy.
The new anti-piracy law, which allows sentences of up to five years in prison, puts online piracy on a level with other forms of copyright infringement and is seen as an important factor in determining if Russia can join the WTO.
The present amendments were ratified back in 2004, but content providers had until today to acquire the appropriate licenses, and register their activities. However, only a handful of content providers actually took the time and effort to go legit.
As the Kommersant notes:
Experts estimate that 97 percent of music spread in Russian Internet now is still piratic, and many mp3 websites sell western music to western customers. Legal Internet market is estimated at less than $1 million per year, while the turnover of just one of the major illegal Russian websites, offering some 850,000 of musical tracks for 12—15 cents, reaches up to $25—30 million, according to different estimates.
Russia president Vladimir Putin, and other world leaders, discussed piracy earlier this year at the G8 summit in Petersburg.
Torrentfreak – The Netherlands
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September 2nd, 2006 at 12:33 pm
Not quite “Russian” and not quite “anti-p2p”: I bet it’s not more than a translated copy of a certain Western copyright directive (those copyright directives are not themselves copyrighted as you might know).
Now we just need someone to draft a Russian DMCA and guide it through the legislature – and voila, there is “world-class” copyright oppression that only took some 15 years to build from scratch.