n 2017, in Russia pirate resources were blocked four times more than a year earlier, told “Izvestia”
in Roskomnadzor.

We are talking about sites that host movies, TV series, books, music, and programs without permission of the authors or copyright holders. More than half of pirated content is film production. Officials and experts note the reduction in the share of illegal content and growth in income of cinemas.

In 2017, 8 thousand pirate resources were blocked, “Izvestia” was told in Roskomnadzor. This is four times more than a year earlier: in 2016, there were 2 thousand.

In 65% of cases blocked sites offered to watch or download movies. Last year, for example, film “Prityazhenie” by Fyodor Bondarchuk and “Interview with Putin” by Oliver Stone were popular among pirates. In 2016 -“Viking” with Danila Kozlovsky and American “Suicide Squad”.

Blocking of pirated resources contributed to growth of cinema fees, said Roskomnadzor, citing the report of Cinema Fund. It states that last year, “total box-office of the national box office grew by 10.9% and amounted to 53.6 billion rubles (in 2016 year to 48.4 billion rubles)”. Attendance of cinemas increased by 11.4%.

Roskomnadzor noted that access to pirated Internet resources is limited by court decision. This is provided by Federal law on information protection. For multiple violations, the court can block resource on an ongoing basis. It means, removing illegal content will not help to regain access to the site. In 2017, 530 such resources have been blocked forever (in 2016 — 107). In addition, access to 459 “mirrors” of pirate sites has been permanently restricted. Law to fight against them appeared in October of last year, and now “mirror” is also blocked and removed from search results.

Ministry of culture told to “Izvestia” that the anti-piracy law requires continuous improvements. Therefore, the Agency is engaged in the issue of finalizing out-of-court mechanism for blocking illegal content.

– Distribution of illegal content brings considerable damage to owners because it gives chance of viewing content, for example, before its official release, — declared in Department.

In February, Ministry of culture put forward a draft law for public discussion, allowing rights holders to apply for blocking of pirated resources directly to Roskomnadzor, bypassing judicial stage. This feature is offered by the Agency if both the owner of the resource and the hosting owner ignored the statement of copyright infringement and did not delete the content.

The Media Communication Union (MCU) noted that it is important to inform users of the risks of using illegal content. Visiting pirate sites is fraught with the appearance of malware on your computer.

Control over observance of copyright is now working effectively, according to Alexey Uchitel, director. For example, the movie “Matilda” could not be found Online for two months after premiere, as pirate resources were blocked instantly.

As wrote by “Izvestia”, only 20% pirated content is blocked, the rest is removed in pre-trial order at the request of right holders.

SOURCE: IZ