Anti-piracy memorandum extended in Russia

Representatives of copyright holders, video hosting owners and search engine operators in Russia have extended the Memorandum of Cooperation in the field of exclusive rights protection until August 1.

It a statement, the regulator Roskomnadzor says that the document was signed on November 1, 2018 and was due to expire at the end of this month. It adds that according to the memorandum, a register of links to pirated content was created and is maintained by the Media Communication Union. Search engines are required to check the registry every five minutes and remove links that appear in it within six hours. The registrar verifies the validity of the links sent by the copyright holders.

During the validity of the memorandum, about 11.7 million links to pirated content have been removed from Yandex search results. This, according to Roskomnadzor, indicates that the document has become an effective tool for copyright protection in Russia. In development of the memorandum, a draft law has been developed at the site of the Media Communication Union, which is currently being discussed with the participation of representatives of the industry. With the adoption of the bill, the mechanisms of combating pirated content worked out during the memorandum’s validity will be extended to companies that have not signed this document.

The memorandum’s signatories include Channel One, VGTRK, CTC Media, Gazprom Media, National Media Group, Yandex, Mail.ru and Rambler Group.