Page 2 - bne_Tech_0809_2018

Top Stories
August/September 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 2
Online Piracy Still an Issue in Russia Despite Tighter Legislation
and several amendments since then have made the Russian anti-piracy legislation even tougher. The measures gave copyright holders a stronger hand in combating online piracy, which at the time was estimated to cost legitimate companies in Russia as much as $2bn a year in lost revenues.
The law's main feature was that it gave web site owners just three days to take down illegal content or face being shut down. Copyright holders no longer had to go through a long and cumbersome legal process to prove their ownership of digital content.
Roskomnadzor, Russia's communications watch- dog, was put in charge of handling copyright infringement complaints. The agency was given the right to issue a warning to web sites contain- ing illegitimate video content and completely shut them down unless the content was not removed.
That practice was extended to cover all kinds of copyrighted digital content a year later.
In May 2015, the anti-piracy legislation was made even stricter, allowing courts to perpetually shut down web sites for repeated copyright infringe- ments as long as rights holders were able to prove that.
Since then, 1,182 web sites have been permanent- ly shut down, Roskomnadzor announced.
Under a new batch of amendments that came into effect in October 2017, rights holders obtained the opportunity to request blocking so called "mirrors" – copies of originally blocked web sites. So far, nearly 2,500 mirrors of web sites with pirated content have been shut down, according to Roskomnadzor.
lations, the government suggested shortening the period in which allegedly pirated content has to be removed at Roskomnadzor's request from current 72 hours to 24 hours, but it isn't yet clear when the measure will be enacted.
Rights holders believe that the anti-piracy measures have made a positive impact, but are not sufficient.
Growth in revenues of legitimate online video services is generally viewed as a sign that people have been gradually switching from pirated web sites to properly run services.
Last year, revenues of legitimate online video services in Russia were up 60% up year on year to RUB7.7bn ($116bn), while revenues from subscription skyrocketed by 91% to RUB4.5bn ($70mn), according to TMT Consulting.
Still, rights holders are sceptical.
"There have been some [positive] results, but there hasn't been enough effectiveness," Dmitry Sychugov, general director of Amedia TV, an online video service that actively fights against the pirat- ing of its content, was quoted as saying by RBC.
He added that rights holders' options for protecting their materials are still behind technological solutions available to pirates and that the majority of users still turn to pirate web sites for free content.
GET THE BEST CONTENT DELIVERED STRAIGHT INTO YOUR INBOX!
bne:Tech
SIGN UP HERE
In a move to further tighten the anti-piracy regu-