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Russian ministry of culture wants to know online box office

The Russian ministry of culture intends to oblige online cinemas to provide data on each run of movie, in other words the ministry wants to know how many times the movie was streamed. The declared purpose of this legal proposal is simple check how effective the Russian budget supports the Russian movie industry. The real purpose is prosaic and old as this world – the authorities want to know where the money flow.

The Russian ministry of culture has prepared the amendments to the law on cinematography. Accordignt to this draft law the state would collect the data on each run of movie in online cinema in order to know its online box office. According to the ministry the draft law has been discussed with online cinemas and movie producers. The final draft of the law has been sent to the government. According to the current law on cinematography any cinema is obliged to sent information to the relevant state system on each sold ticket.

According to the amendments the online cinema to send the title of movie, the name of its director, the year of release and the quantity of views. The proposed law would cover all online cinema regardless of the country where the owner or operator of the online cinema is placed or incorporated. The online cinema under the draft law is the “audiovisual service providing opportunity to view the set of films through the internet network”, “the access to the films is provided for the payment or for the payment and /or after the showing of advertisement targeted at the Russian consumers residing in Russian territory”.

But it is not all for today. The Russian state duma has adopted anti-Apple and Google law on pre-sale installation of Russian software or applications on gadgets intended for sale in Russia. The law has been adopted in third reading. The list of devised falling under the regulation is to be formed by the Russian government. The Russian major IT companies disliked this draft law. The association of traders also has provided negative assessmen of consequences for Russian economy if the draft law would become the law.

First of all software developers would wrestle for the place in the software list formed by the Russian government. The matter of app quality and interface frienliness would be shifted to the last place. The small enterprise would be overboard because all places in the governmental list would be occupied by the major market players. The competition would decrease. Many producers can leave the market, the rest of survivors would increase the price and reduce the choice for consumer. Besides the share of “grey (uncertified) import” would also increase.

Despite the criticisms from the side of market, the senators, following the state duma, have approved and adopted the draft law. Now the draft law is to be signed by the Russian president and the law enter into force in 2020. If the subject of regulation fails to comply with this law, it can face liability up to 1 mln Roubles for legal entity and up to half of a mln for individual enterprise.

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