Publishers have offered Yandex cooperation in protecting digital books

The Association for the Protection of Copyright on the Internet (AZAPI) made a proposal to Yandex regarding the signing of a memorandum of cooperation in the field of protection of electronic and audio books. Reports about it "RBC".

"The mechanism for removing links from search results is, in our opinion, an effective preventive mechanism that will allow rightholders to compete for the user audience, rather than resort to redundant, but at the moment, forced measures to block sites," the association’s letter says.

Representatives of the organization note that, in general, they managed to reach an agreement with the main digital content distribution sites and social networks. The agreement allows you to block pirated content without a court decision. It is worth noting that Russian publishing houses have been cooperating with Google since 2011, but there is no possibility to use such a mechanism with Yandex yet.

AZAPI argues that search results give pirate sites an opportunity to increase their audience by launching new sites with illegal content. In practice, the association found that the overwhelming majority of owners of pirated sites hide their contacts without participating in court proceedings. That is why the site blocking procedure turns into a formality, loading the judicial system, telecom operators, the state regulator and the network infrastructure of the Internet.

“For our part, we are ready for the most constructive dialogue, for thorough verification of links to sites and comparison with the catalog of copyright, as well as for any means of technical integration of data exchange through the API,” reads the appeal to Yandex.

Representatives of AZAPI sent a similar letter to the head of Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov. In it, the association asked the head of the service to assist in the negotiation process with Yandex.



In turn, Zharov advised those publishers who wish to join the anti-piracy memorandum, to appeal directly to the parties that have signed this document. “Roskomnadzor is not a party to the memorandum <...> the memorandum is a tool of self-regulation, not state regulation,” Zharov said on Thursday after the brand’s cancellation ceremony in honor of the 25th anniversary of the establishment of a communications supervisory authority in Russia at TASS.

It is worth noting that in order to implement the provisions of the memorandum, it is necessary to create a registry in which its holder will make links to sites with pirated audio and video content. Administrators of Internet resources are required every five minutes to access this registry, removing problem links from the issue within six hours. In addition, those sites that have signed the memorandum will have to remove the pirated content entered in the registry from their video hosting, as well as other services.

The registry holder is not specified in the memorandum. Prior to the formation of the registry, Internet companies must undertake to remove links to pirated content within 24 hours, according to the copyright holders. This approach is in accordance with the US copyright law in the digital age.

Those who wish to join the memorandum can do this at any time. To do this, you need to send a statement to Roskomnadzor - the agency acts as the holder of the memorandum. In the case of rights holders, the application must be approved by the majority of companies that have already signed the document.

Disputes that may arise in the process of work, the parties are obliged to solve “through negotiations and consultations with the participation of Roskomnadzor. If the problem is not resolved within 30 days from the date of the notification, the parties may apply to the “competent court in accordance with the norms of current legislation” or leave the memorandum altogether.

It was decided to draw up this document after several months of discussions and court proceedings of the Gazprom-Media TV channels with Yandex.