Internet piracy in performing arts. Survey of the situation in Russia and in Great Britain

The Embassy of Great Britain held the seminar “Internet Piracy in Performing Arts”. Russian and British lawyers as well as heads of specialized departments participated in the seminar. Advocate Denis Shumskiy represented the Law Firm "YUST".

The key issues of the event:

• Protection of copyright and neighboring rights of the participants of the opening and closing ceremonies of Olympics and Paralympics of 2012 in London;
• Main trends of development of the Russian copyright in modern-day conditions;
• Internet piracy hurts the development of cinema industry;
• Survey of the situation in the Russian and British segments of the Internet;
• Suggestions regarding the cooperation between Great Britain and Russia in the fight against Internet piracy.

During the discussions the experts concluded that social networks are currently one of the largest violators of copyright in Russia. A representative of Great Britain, producer and script writer James Alby pointed out in his turn: “The people, who work in the creative sphere, should receive their earned remuneration at all stages of the creation of a film. And piracy is a powerful blow to the cinema industry”.

David Clark, Detective Superintendent of the London police, opened the session on a partnership approach to tackling Internet enabled crime and told the members of the event of the new model of combating Internet piracy, which was developed by the London police in cooperation with the Association of record labels of Great Britain. Approximately 85% of the British entertainment content is distributed by piracy, but the English experts assured that this can be fought.

Karen Kazaryan, Chief Analyst of the Russian Association of Electronic Communications, compared the “anti-piracy” law recently adopted by the State Duma not to DMCA but to SOPA – a draft law taken off from the consideration by the USA Congress under pressure from the American society. According to him, the suggested provisions give many possibilities for numerous offences, which exist in practice even now: for example, approximately 97% of the websites blocked on demand by the Roskomnadzor are “innocent”, that is – contain no censored content like propaganda of suicides or information on the ways to purchase and use drugs etc. He explained that in 47% of the cases such websites fall victim to banal delations by competitors.

Advocate Denis Shumskiy of the Law Firm "YUST" agreed with his colleagues that the issue of copyright protection in the Internet is especially acute now. However, the expert evaluates that the Russian legislation in the sphere is quite progressive, and the lawmakers keep making steps on improving it further. In particular, the draft law under discussion provides the copyright holders with a very efficient instrument in their fight against the illegal distribution of the cinema products over the Web. The procedure suggested by it is a basis for enabling the blocking of the webpage with the “pirated” copy in 2 or 3 days. Practice shows that much more time is currently required for the elimination of all illegal copies of a film or another copyrighted object from the Web. D.Shumskiy believes that, after the law is enacted, special attention should be paid to the forming of the practice of its application, which should exclude abuses. The court’s role in the solution of this task is crucial. In this connection, the lawmakers’ decision to endow the Moscow City Court with said powers is dubious, since a specialized court on intellectual rights has been created and is already becoming active, says the expert.

See the program of the event here .