"Yandex" with the owners discuss the mechanism of pre-trial removal of pirated links from the search

The conflict between Yandex and Gazprom-media did not go unnoticed by the authorities. Yesterday, a meeting was held in the presidential administration of the Russian Federation, which was attended by employees of Yandex, Google, Mail.ru Group, Gazprom Media, the National Media Group (NMG), Roskomnadzor and a representative of the Association of Film and Television Producers (APCiT). According to several informed sources, Internet companies, media holdings and officials are discussing an out-of-court mechanism for removing links from sites with illegal content from search. Information on the preparation of such an agreement was confirmed by representatives of Roskomnadzor, NMG, Gazprom-media and APKiT.

Right holders have long demanded that Yandex and other search companies introduce an effective mechanism for quickly removing any pirated links. Probably, ideally, they would like to have access to the "admin" in which they can enter arbitrary links - and those are instantly excluded from the search results. Or implement such a mechanism, which is provided for by the American DMCA law.

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) law, media companies send complaints directly to Google and other Internet companies via a special online form, and those quickly remove pirated links from the search results and other content from their hosting. Unlike American practice, in Russia market participants hope to do without creating a special law, but only by self-regulation and voluntary commitments of market participants. In their opinion, censorship will be more effective without the participation of government agencies and courts, and when issues are resolved directly between companies.

In the spring of this year, the copyright holders suggested that Yandex sign a memorandum of voluntary deletion of links, but he refused. According to Vedomosti, the agreement under discussion is a new version of that memorandum.

One source argues that Yandex does not want to take on the task of determining which links to delete, and which not. The company believes that this should be dealt with by moderators from the industrial association - either one of the current or specially created for such filtering. These moderators will maintain a single registry of illegal links , according to which “Yandex” is going to filter the issue. According to the procedure, the links from the issue in this case will be deleted a few hours after filing a complaint.

One of the meeting participants expressed the hope that the new memorandum would be ready within a month and that he would “radically change the situation in the industry.”