The State Duma passed a law on Wednesday providing for the blocking of mobile applications

that infringe copyright and related rights.

The relevant bill was introduced in the State Duma in 2018 by a group of deputies. Its authors

included State Duma Deputy Speaker Pyotr Tolstoy of United Russia, Deputy Chair of the State

Duma Committee on Information Policy Marina Mukabenova of United Russia, Deputy Chair of

the same Committee Alexander Yushchenko of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation,

and Committee member Anton Gorelkin of United Russia.

Under the bill, once Roskomnadzor receives a relevant application from a rights holder, it must

identify the owner of the information resource hosting the infringing application within three

business days.

Roskomnadzor must then send an electronic notice of copyright infringement to the owner of the

information resource hosting the application, requiring measures to restrict access to the relevant

content.

The owner of the information resource has one business day from receipt of Roskomnadzor’s

notice to inform the owner of the software application and notify it of the need to restrict access

to the copyrighted or related-rights content immediately.

Under the bill, the application owner must restrict access to the relevant content within one

business day after receiving the notice from the owner of the information resource.

Where the application owner fails to do so, the owner of the information resource hosting the

software application must restrict access to the application itself. Where the owner of the

information resource also fails to restrict access, the relevant information is sent to

telecommunications operators so that they may take measures to block access to the application.

The law will enter into force on 1 October 2020

Source: RIA Novosti, 27 May

Evgeny B. Alexandrov, Partner at Gorodissky & Partners in Moscow and Head of the

GORODISSKY IP SECURITY project, commented:

"GORODISSKY IP SECURITY experts identify a significant number of online copyright

infringements every day, both on websites and through mobile applications. Illegal mobile

applications harm not only rights holders, but may also cause users' mobile devices to

malfunction.

We very much hope that the law providing for the blocking of mobile applications that infringe

copyright and related rights will contribute to more effective enforcement and protect users from

illegal mobile applications."

3 July 2020