Member Article

The adoption of the Federal Law No 156-FZ “On Amendments to the Federal Law "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection” entered into force October 1, 2017 (hereinafter the “Federal Law”).

1. Blacklisting Mirror Websites

Federal Law determines the notion of a copy of blocked website reproducing illegal content (hereinafter the “Mirror website”) as well as provides for specific simplified proceedings on restricting access to Mirror website.

According to the Federal Law any website confusingly similar to the website subject to blacklisting under decision of the Moscow city court due to illegal and repeated placement of information violating copyright and related rights (piracy website) will be qualified as a Mirror website.

Should Mirror website be revealed, a right holder or state authorities will be entitled to initiate blocking proceedings by filing the respective request to the Ministry of Telecom and Mass Communications of the Russian Federation (hereinafter the “Minsvyaz”), which in its turn will handle all the proceedings provided by the Federal Law for blacklisting the illegal mirror website.

2. Removal from the Search Results

Additionally the Federal Law introduces new obligation of Internet search engines. Since October 2017, they will be responsible for exclusion of any information or links to illegal websites and related domain names from their search results upon the competent authority request. This rule will be equally applicable to both initial websites and Mirror websites.

The Federal Law is development of so called antipiracy legislation and is designed to fight against copies of the blacklisted resources becoming effective tool for enforcing copyright and related rights and enabling right holders to restrict access to Mirror websites at lower cost.
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Kind regards,ALRUD Law Firm

Note: Please be aware that all information provided in this letter was taken from open sources. The author of this letter bears no liability for consequences of any decisions made in reliance upon this information.