Access to over 280 'pirate' websites has been restricted in Russia since the introduction of AN amended copyright law in 2013. Additionally to The Pirate Bay and the huge Ukrainian file-hosting website EX.ua, streaming sites as well as Primewire are affected. Next week rightholders are going to apply for leading native torrent website RUTracker to be blocked forever.
Following intense pressure from each native and international rightsholders, simply over the past 2 years Russia took necessary steps towards cracking down on net piracy.
August 1, 2013, saw the introduction of a fresh copyright law that provided rightsholders with a mechanism to possess sites blocked by ISPs if they are not responding to takedown requests in a period of 72 hours.
Reporting on the past two years of activity, native telecoms watchdog Roscomnadzor has currently disclosed the extent to which the legislation has been utilized by rightsholders and what action has been taken.
“Since August, 2013, Roskomnadzor has received 189 complaints from rights holders. it's worth seeing that presently we tend to limiting the access to 282 sites that violate copyright and other relevant rights,” Roskomnadzor chief Alexander Zharov told RIA.
Unsurprisingly the list includes The Pirate Bay, that had restrictions levied in June 2015 following a criticism from Mosfilm, one among the biggest European motion picture studios.
Other websites presently blocked consist of well-known motion picture streaming site Primewire. Ukraine-based file-hosting giant EX.ua is additionally affected, besides library sites flibusta.net loveread.ws, have combined web traffic of over forty million visitors per month. Sports streaming portal Livetv.sx, that reportedly attracts twenty seven million visits, is additionally restricted.
While blockades in Russia may be full, partial or upraised if cooperation is forthcoming, earlier this year authorities also made it clear that repeat offenders wouldn't be tolerated. Amendments to copyright law introduced on May 1 indicated what lay ahead.
“This development mean that the systematic violation of intellectual property rights will lead to sites providing access to pirated content being blocked forever,” the govt declared.
It currently seems that RUTracker, Russia’s most-visited torrent website, and well-known music portal ProstoPleer, have tested that promise to breaking point.
“A few days ago an plea was filed by an association of rightsholders that may lead to constant blocks on two of biggest pirate resources,” Roskomnadzor’s Zharov confirms.
Both RUTracker and Pleer were subjected to earlier copyright complaints however reportedly didn't agitate them as needed under the law. the present action comes from the National Federation of the Music Industry (NFMI), an association that that counts Sony, Universal, Warner and EMI among its members.
“We decided to file a testimony with the court soon,” says NFMI chief operating officer Leonid Agronov.
The music industry association said it tried to work-out with the sites in regards to the removal of pirated content but those discussions didn't yield any results. Countering, Pavel Rassudov from the native Pirate Party feels that blockades can prove ineffective.
““People learn the way to bypass these blocks, and therefore the increase in their number will solely result in a lot of frequent use of CGI proxies and therefore the Tor network,” Rassudov says.
