Russian Search Engines to Remove Pirated Links Within 6 Hours

Russian television companies, together with online cinemas and IT companies, have developed amendments to the “Information Law.” According to the newspaper Vedomosti, search engines operating in Russia will be connected to a special registry of links to pirated content and will be required to promptly remove them.

Copyright holders will be able to choose a company approved by Roskomnadzor to manage the registry of pirated links on their behalf. Once the regulatory agency approves such a company, search engines will have 10 days to connect to the registry. After a pirated link appears in the registry, search engines will have 6 hours to remove it. The publication notes that there will be no limit to the number of registries that can be created.

According to a Roskomnadzor representative, the amendments are already prepared and have been sent to the presidential administration. After that, they are expected to be forwarded to the State Duma’s Committee on Information Policy, which will continue working on them and submit them to parliament for consideration.

In July of this year, Roskomnadzor head Alexander Zharov announced that a draft anti-piracy law had been submitted to the State Duma, but it has not yet reached parliament. As a result, the companies decided to agree on extending the anti-piracy memorandum signed on November 1, 2018.

According to the memorandum, a special registry of pirated links is to be created, with copyright holders submitting the links. The management of the registry has been assigned to Roskomnadzor. The memorandum is set to expire on September 1, 2019.