Maxim Ali has provided his comments to changes in legislation on information, information technology and data protection

Novaya Advokatskaya Gazeta has published an article titled ‘On behalf of pirates, search engines will answer’ which considered the bill which will enable websites with pirate content to be blocked from internet search results without a court order.

The changes have been put forward in bills developed by the Ministry of Culture to change Article 1253.1 of the Civil Code (in part for the protection of copyright and/or related rights in information communication networks, including the internet) and the Federal law ‘On information, information technology and data protection’.

Senior Associate at Maxima Legal and specialist in the IP/IT Practice, Maxim Ali noted that the inclusion of search engine operators in the list of information distributors is an effective step in the fight against privacy: ‘Blocking this access route to information will significantly ease the task for right holders who are striving to rid the internet of unlicensed content’.

On the issue of conditions for avoiding liability, more familiar to Russian information distributors including site owners and hosting providers, Maxim recalled that similar criteria were previously set out in the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Commercial Court dated 1 November 2011 number 6672/11 in the case of Agava-soft (case number А40-75669/08-110-609).

However, the question of how the rules will be enforced by law enforcement remains unanswered. Maxim assumes that ‘the judgments of the Court on Intellectual Rights will have great importance, as they will interpret the new edition of Article 1253.1 of the Civil Code, acting as an appeal court in disputes between rights holders and internet businesses.’

For the full comments on this topic and the article (in Russian), please see the following link.