Russian officials have expressed concerns over the recent suggestions to introduce an Internet tax intended to compensate rights owners for Internet piracy. It is known that the proposed measures from the Russian Union of Right Holders may be worth $860m to creators annually.


The copyright holders all over the world have been pushing for tougher legislation for a while now, hoping that fines and jail sentences may encourage the pirates to buy rather than steal. However, it seems that Russia looks at the problem from another direction.

A couple months ago, the Russian Union of Right Holders suggested to introduce a fixed royalty fee paid to copyright owners in exchange for Internet users receiving certain freedoms in dealing with online content, i.e. they would get the right to legally share content for private purposes. The suggested measures saw ISPs obtaining “universal licenses” from copyright owners or their representatives. Those licenses would legitimize the “infringements” of Internet users.

Although no details were officially announced, the media reports suggested an annual fee of up to $5 per each user. This means that the “tax” may make ISP subscriptions 5% more expensive, while it could also bring in $860 million for content creators.

Of course, the suggestions have a lot of drawbacks. First of all, any Internet user would be obliged to pay the Internet tax, regardless of whether he or she is downloading content for free or purchasing it legitimately. In addition, the license does not allow public sharing of files, which is a serious limitation for most file-sharers. Secondly, the tax will be paid on a “per device” basis, including home connections and cellphones, which means that you may be required to pay multiple times even if you are not a pirate.

In the meantime, Internet service providers have voiced concerns that if the suggested legislation were adopted, the Internet piracy problem would be placed on the shoulders of ISPs, because they would have to collect tax from their subscribers. Finally, even rights owners seem to have problems with the proposal, pointing at lacking the suitable system for distribution of royalties and the potential legalization of piracy, causing the undermining of fledgling digital services.