AfterDawn: Tech news

Russia to legalize software and movie piracy

Written by Petteri Pyyny @ 11 Mar 2022 7:29

Russia to legalize software and movie piracy

As Russia has been pushed to isolation after it attacked Ukraine and country is now considering ways how to deal with the new situation. As Russian society is heavily relying on Western technology, country has to decide how to overcome the situation where it doesn't have access to Western software, chips and more.
Even Russian heavy industry and many critical civilian corporations rely on Western software like databases, CRM systems and, obviously, Windows operating system. Some of those have open source alternatives available, but in order to quickly transition a sizable corporation from one platform (and set of enterprise software) to another one isn't a task that can be completed within a reasonable timeline.

Thus, Russian Ministry of Economic Development has laid out a plan on how to deal with the new situation. One of the proposed methods is to basically allow full-blown software piracy. It would allow using software from companies that don't do business with Russia anymore, whether the Russian user has a license or not. Proposal would make the use of such software non-punishable in Russian courts.



Additionally, the proposal also plans to cancel technology patents and compulsory licensing models. Proposal would give Russian government rights to inventions, utility models, software designs and databases - whether they are patented or not.

Publicly, even the movie piracy might become legal - or at least non-punishable. All major Hollywood studios have ceased movie distribution in Russia. Also, all Western streaming services have been shut down in the country. Thus, Russian audiences don't have legal access to new foreign TV shows and movies.

Russian ministry's plans can be found on TorrentFreak (in Russian, PDF).

Tags: piracy
Previous Next  
Comments have been disabled for this article.

Latest news

The era of cheap AI is about to end - consumers and companies may experience a harsh reality very soon The era of cheap AI is about to end - consumers and companies may experience a harsh reality very soon (19 Apr 2026 12:58)
AI companies have allowed both consumers and businesses to use their developed AI models at a significantly lower cost than their actual expenses. A clear change is now coming to this, which could significantly alter the market.
Defunct companies started selling their former employees' email and Slack messages to AI companies Defunct companies started selling their former employees' email and Slack messages to AI companies (18 Apr 2026 12:27)
Technology companies that have gone bankrupt or have simply been shut down have found a new way to make a little more money at their final gasp. The companies are selling their employees' Slack, Teams, and email messages as training material for AI compan
Google starts penalizing sites that hijack the browser back button Google starts penalizing sites that "hijack" the browser back button (18 Apr 2026 2:35)
Google has announced that starting from June 2026 it will begin penalizing websites that hijack the browser back button.
Installing a fresh Windows 11 is now up to half an hour faster Installing a fresh Windows 11 is now up to half an hour faster (17 Apr 2026 11:11)
The update to Windows 11 released in April 2026 changes the way Windows is installed on a computer for the first time. User can now skip the previously mandatory updates during the installation phase.
EU age verification app humiliated: Researcher bypassed protections in two minutes EU age verification app humiliated: Researcher bypassed protections in two minutes (17 Apr 2026 9:57)
The official EU age verification app released this week is reportedly easy to crack. Security researchers claim that it can be circumvented within two minutes.

News archive