group of deputies introduced a bill on blocking mobile applications that violate copyright to the state Duma. The document is published in the electronic database of the lower house of Parliament.

The proposed amendments to the law “on information, information technologies and information protection” expand the list of information resources that can be blocked for the distribution of pirated content” by “software applications”.

We are talking about mobile application stores. “This clarification of the law has long been expected by the industry,” commented Leonid Levin, Chairman of the Committee on information policy, information technologies and communications. According to him, Russia has developed one of the most effective systems of copyright protection in the world.

Restriction on the spread of pirated content undermining the economy of illegal Internet sites, “at the same time there was a loophole in the law that allowed the pirates perform a set of formal requirements needed to host their applications in the application stores to cash in on smartphone users,” points out Levin. This gap will be closed, and Russian laws will fully comply with the current level of technology, said the parliamentarian.

Sequentially closing all the channels of distribution of pirated content, the state Duma is primarily aimed at supporting local authors, who will have financial incentives to create new music, books, movies and TV shows, explained Levin.

The authors of the bill were deputies Marina Mukabenova (“United Russia”), Oleg Nikolaev (“Fair Russia”) and Alexander Yushchenko (Communist party).

SOURCE: VEDOMOSTI