Russian ministry proposes out-of-court removal of pirate sites from search engines

Russia’s Culture Ministry has drafted a bill offering to remove pirate websites from search on the Internet within 24 hours on an out-of-court basis.

The document has been published on the official website of draft laws.

Under the bill, a copyright holder may send well-grounded claims to a search system operator. Following that, search engines must remove a pirate website from the search within 24 hours or raise reasonable refusal.

A copyright holder also will be able to file a complaint about illegal content with Roskomnadzor, Russia’s communications watchdog authorized to demand blocking of a website infringing copyright within 24 hours.

Search system operators would be obliged to publish on their websites contact information for filing applications over pirated Internet resources, the document reads.

Amendments are proposed to the Federal Law on Information, Information Technology and Information Protection and the Civil Code.