Pirated Content in Runet Doubled Over the Past Year

According to data from Roskomnadzor, the volume of pirated content in the Russian segment of the internet more than doubled over the past year. In 2023, the agency blocked or removed nearly 1.1 million links to pirated content from search results, compared to 485,000 the previous year. Since the introduction of the anti-piracy memorandum, which regulates the out-of-court removal of links to illegal content, Roskomnadzor has restricted access to 178 million pages in total.

Roskomnadzor noted that currently, “there is no administrative liability for resource owners for failing to remove objects of copyright and related rights,” but civil liability measures can be applied to them by court decision.

The online cinema Premier explained the increase in pirated content as a result of sanctions, which led to the withdrawal of legal Western content from Runet: “However, pirates use not only Western content but also projects from Russian online cinemas, so last year we strengthened the protection of our film library.”

Sergey Vasilenko, head of the anti-piracy department at the online cinema START, linked the growth of piracy to the overall expansion of the streaming market. According to him, watching video content online is the second most popular media consumption activity among Russians, after social networks.