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Russian minister of culture: users must be liable if they use pirated content

Russian minister of culture Vladimir Medinsky believes internet users must be personally responsible for the use of pirate content, but society is not ready for it. It is premature to provide liability for users in Russian law.

“I believe users must bear some liability for theft of author’s product. But at current stage our society has ripened unlikely. There must be an absolutely different culture of consuming for these purposes.” – he said. “A more rigorous legislation is necessary in order to fight piracy. Ministry of Culture (Mincult) is a proponent of more rigorous approach.”

But Russian minister of culture did not explain how users must define whether the content in internet is legal. Medinsky also believes a pirate website is to be shut down without court order or proceedings. “After series of warnings a pirate web-site is to be shut down under pre-trial procedure. After that it must prove that it is not a pirate.”

Medinsky has admitted he is a subscriber of legal content services, offering legal audio-visual content. “It is insanely comfortable, very simple, if it too lazy for you to go to the cinema, and it is cheaper, than in the cinema, significantly”, – underlined minister of culture. He also pointed that cabinet of minister approved draft law on mirror of pirate web-sites. “It is a very good draft law. It will resolve a problem of piracy partially and slightly.”

However the Russian ministry of communication (MinCom) is not agreed with Medinsky. “We don’t uphold it. We believe it is unjustified.” – said MinCom’s chief Nikolay Nikiforov. He also has underlined that it is impossible to implement and administrate. Nobody in the world has learned how to fight with users who use or consume pirated content. It is necessary to fight with illegal websites and pirates.