Russia Considers Legalizing Piracy to Fight Foreign Sanctions

As a response to ukrainian war, numerous entertainment companies have ceased their activities in Russia or withdrawn their products. multinationals like Microsoft, Nintendo, Electronic Arts, Netflix or Sony they have stopped broadcasting or selling their products in this country, and almost all American distributors have canceled movie releases like Batman.

For the most part, these are actions that do not have a great impact on the global economy, but are suffered by Russian and Belarusian citizens, something they consider a further pressure measure to move public opinion against the war.

In response, the government plans to take a series of actions that, at practical levels, legalize piracy.

According to local media quoted by City.AM (via IGN), from the Kremlin have told the companies that they no longer have an obligation to pay for the use of intellectual properties patent holders from countries that have sanctioned Russia.

“The possibility of lifting restrictions on the use of intellectual property contained in certain goods, the supply of which in Russia is limited, is being considered“, said the Minister of Economic Development a week ago.

The Plan to Ensure the Development of the Russian Economy in Conditions of External Sanctions guarantees that companies that use content protected by Intellectual Property will not be persecuted for it: it is a carte blanche for hackingdesigned for professional software such as Adobe, but also applicable to film or video games.

The objective is soften the market impact of supply chain breakdown and the scarcity of goods and services produced by the sanctions of Western countries.

Russian companies will no longer have to pay for the use of the IPs of enemy countries, but for consumers it is also considered unblock RuTracker torrent site to make it easier for Russian citizens to watch Hollywood movies that are no longer coming to the country, according to Rossiyskaya Gazeta.