July 1, 2014 at 11:55Extension of anti-piracy law. Block content will be without a court order
In state The Duma adopted the latest amendments to anti-piracy legislation, which entered into force on August 2013. In the final version, the copyright holder will be able to block the content that violates, in his opinion, without a court order, by filling out a request to the hosting provider. Penalties for individuals for non-compliance with the law are 150-300 thousand rubles, for legal entities. persons - 0.5-1 million rubles.
Since August 2013, the copyright holder could apply to the Moscow City Court for a preliminary security blocking of 15 days. The court, in turn, notified the hosting provider of the need to block the page on which the contentious materials are posted. The provider could require the person who posted the content to delete it within 24 hours, otherwise, within three days, he should block access to the page where the contentious materials are posted. If the provider did not respond, then carriers of a higher level were involved for blocking. The copyright holder, in turn, had 15 days of security lock in order to file a lawsuit. If the lawsuit has not been filed, the lock is removed. Since August 2013, 162 decisions on blocking were made, when only 88 copyright holders filed lawsuits.
Anti-piracy law has been extended to the following intellectual property materials:
The law will enter into force 90 days after its official publication, excluding musical materials, for them the law will work only from 2016, which is regarded by music labels as “discrimination”, because social networks and the network as a whole is filled with pirated audio recordings. According to the new text of the bill, the provider’s response time extends from 24 hours to 36 hours for the removal of disputed materials. The main fear is caused by the addition that a resource that repeatedly violated this law could be recognized as prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation, i.e. block completely, which can greatly affect the freedom of access to various sites.
The new text of the bill also allows you to block content without going to court. According to the text of the law, each site owner will have to indicate on it special feedback details for contacting on such issues. The copyright holder can, without going to court, directly contact the owner of the resource to block content that violates his property rights. The law provides for a mandatory list of information that the applicant will have to provide to block content. Upon receipt of the request, the hosting provider will have 36 hours to notify the person who posted materials that violate the law to block them. The hosted person will have 9 days to challenge this decision. Having received such an objection, access to the content can be restored within 14 days, if a lawsuit has not been filed with a court. After the expiration of the security blocking period, at the request of the copyright holder, mechanisms similar to the judicial blocking procedure come into motion, i.e. the material will be blocked until the court ruling if a statement of claim has been filed.
How costly for the owners of the resource this procedure will be, lawmakers do not specify, but refer to the fact that such mechanisms already work in the social services. Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki networks. Incidentally, the initiative to introduce extra-judicial locks came from the Ministry of Culture.
For violation of the extrajudicial blocking procedure, as well as for the submission of knowingly false information from both sides, both the user and the copyright holder are fined. For physical. persons from 150 to 300 thousand rubles, for jur. persons from 0.5 to 1 million rubles. These measures fall under the jurisdiction of administrative law. Some experts note that the presence of penalties will aggravate the situation and lead to uncontrolled blocking of content on any request by hosting providers in order to avoid breaking the law and subsequently receive a fine for non-compliance with it. Those. this mechanism from the contractual one with which it was originally conceived (blocking and removing material without involving the judiciary) is turning into punitive-compulsory.
The bill may still be amended.
It is very ironic in this situation that lawmakers are still developing restrictive and punitive measures against the end consumer, instead of forcing media magnates and copyright holders to create a decent infrastructure for legal digital implementation and distribution of content on the Internet.
How anti-piracy law worked before
Since August 2013, the copyright holder could apply to the Moscow City Court for a preliminary security blocking of 15 days. The court, in turn, notified the hosting provider of the need to block the page on which the contentious materials are posted. The provider could require the person who posted the content to delete it within 24 hours, otherwise, within three days, he should block access to the page where the contentious materials are posted. If the provider did not respond, then carriers of a higher level were involved for blocking. The copyright holder, in turn, had 15 days of security lock in order to file a lawsuit. If the lawsuit has not been filed, the lock is removed. Since August 2013, 162 decisions on blocking were made, when only 88 copyright holders filed lawsuits.
How will it work now
Anti-piracy law has been extended to the following intellectual property materials:
- Software
- Literary works
- broadcasts and streams
- musical phonograms (music)
The law will enter into force 90 days after its official publication, excluding musical materials, for them the law will work only from 2016, which is regarded by music labels as “discrimination”, because social networks and the network as a whole is filled with pirated audio recordings. According to the new text of the bill, the provider’s response time extends from 24 hours to 36 hours for the removal of disputed materials. The main fear is caused by the addition that a resource that repeatedly violated this law could be recognized as prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation, i.e. block completely, which can greatly affect the freedom of access to various sites.
Extrajudicial Blocking Mechanism
The new text of the bill also allows you to block content without going to court. According to the text of the law, each site owner will have to indicate on it special feedback details for contacting on such issues. The copyright holder can, without going to court, directly contact the owner of the resource to block content that violates his property rights. The law provides for a mandatory list of information that the applicant will have to provide to block content. Upon receipt of the request, the hosting provider will have 36 hours to notify the person who posted materials that violate the law to block them. The hosted person will have 9 days to challenge this decision. Having received such an objection, access to the content can be restored within 14 days, if a lawsuit has not been filed with a court. After the expiration of the security blocking period, at the request of the copyright holder, mechanisms similar to the judicial blocking procedure come into motion, i.e. the material will be blocked until the court ruling if a statement of claim has been filed.
How costly for the owners of the resource this procedure will be, lawmakers do not specify, but refer to the fact that such mechanisms already work in the social services. Vkontakte and Odnoklassniki networks. Incidentally, the initiative to introduce extra-judicial locks came from the Ministry of Culture.
Crime and Punishment
For violation of the extrajudicial blocking procedure, as well as for the submission of knowingly false information from both sides, both the user and the copyright holder are fined. For physical. persons from 150 to 300 thousand rubles, for jur. persons from 0.5 to 1 million rubles. These measures fall under the jurisdiction of administrative law. Some experts note that the presence of penalties will aggravate the situation and lead to uncontrolled blocking of content on any request by hosting providers in order to avoid breaking the law and subsequently receive a fine for non-compliance with it. Those. this mechanism from the contractual one with which it was originally conceived (blocking and removing material without involving the judiciary) is turning into punitive-compulsory.
The bill may still be amended.
It is very ironic in this situation that lawmakers are still developing restrictive and punitive measures against the end consumer, instead of forcing media magnates and copyright holders to create a decent infrastructure for legal digital implementation and distribution of content on the Internet.