On July 2, 2013 the President of Russia signed Federal Law “On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation Concerning the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Data and Telecom Networks,” (the “Anti-Piracy Law”), which entered into force on August 1, 2013.
In its final form, the Anti-Piracy Law establishes procedures for prohibiting access to movies that are illegally hosted on data and telecom networks, including on the Internet, and for seeking damages in court.
If interim measures are granted by the Moscow Court, the right holder should submit an application to “the Federal Service for Supervision over Communications, Information Technology, and Mass Media” (“the Federal Service”) in order to restrict access to the resources that distribute the illegally-hosted content. Upon receipt of the application, the Federal Service must then send a notification to the service provider of the web hosting company, which, in turn, must inform the owner of the respective website of the need to remove or restrict access to the illegally-hosted content. If neither the hosting company nor the owner of the website takes the requested measures, the website/page in question will be subsequently blocked by the service provider.
There are concerns about search sites, as well as users who post links to illegally hosted materials, which can become subject to the punitive measures of the Anti-Piracy Law (although the Anti-Piracy Law is silent on users who simply access (download/watch) illegally posted movie content).
Despite the criticism surrounding the Anti-Piracy Law, the intent is to prepare a similar law in the near future that will provide a procedure for protecting the intellectual property rights of other kinds of illegally placed content such as music, computer games, programs, and literature.