I’ve mentioned in previous blogposts that the Russian government was in talks to pass new legislation to deal with piracy. Well, now the wait is over. This past week the Russian government has passed law which would allow websites with “unsuitable” material to be removed without a full judicial investigation. A court order, however, will still be required to block a website or remove content. Nevertheless, parallels have been drawn between this Act and the United States’ Stop Online Piracy Act which was proposed in the House of Representatives early last year.
Many are claiming that this Act (like SOPA) is simply a way for the Government to use piracy as an excuse to censor the internet . So far however, there has been no abuse of the system. Grant it it has literally only been less than a week since the legislation has come into effect and only one lawsuit has been filed, (which has already been rejected due to insufficient paperwork), but still, so far so good.
Time will only tell how effective this Act will be against Piracy and whether or not it will be used as a vehicle to censor the web. If it is just a not-so-brilliant plot to control the internet, I have to say that I am a bit annoyed. Not because of the whole internet censorship thing (although that does peeve me off too), but more because the Government is using a legitimate issue like Piracy as the scapegoat. I’m tired of Censorship stealing Piracy’s thunder.
Sources:
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130801/182527937/First-Anti-Piracy-Lawsuit-Filed-under-Russian-SOPA.html
http://blogs.computerworld.com/gov039t-legislationregulation/22475/russian-anti-piracy-law-way-explore-methods-internet-censorship
http://rt.com/politics/russia-piracy-law-lawsuit-904/
