Over 280 Infringing Sites Blocked in Russia At ISP Level

Since the introduction of a new copyright legislation 2 years ago, over 280 pirate sites have been blocked on the ISP level in Russia. Aside from The Pirate Bay and the largest Ukrainian file-hosting website EX.ua, access to streaming services including Primewire was also restricted. Moreover, soon the copyright owners are going to apply for leading local torrent site RuTracker (former Torrents.ru) to be blocked forever.

Russia has long been under intense pressure from local and international copyright owners and finally had to take important steps towards fighting online piracy in 2013. This is when a new copyright law was introduced, under which copyright owners could have websites blocked by broadband providers if they fail to respond to takedown notices within 3 days.

So, over these two years, the copyrights holders filed 189 complaints. The local Internet watchdog is currently limiting access to 282 websites that are alleged of violating copyright and related rights. Of course, the list includes The Pirate Bay, as well as a popular movie streaming website Primewire, a Ukraine-based file-hosting service EX.ua, library websites flibusta.net and loveread.ws, and a sports streaming portal Livetv.sx.

Under the local law, bans can be full, partial or lifted if the services are willing to cooperate. However, the government made it clear that repeat offenders would not be tolerated, and recent amendments to the law mean that the repeat violation of IP rights will see the “pirate” sites being blocked forever. This may affect RuTracker, the most popular torrent website in the country, and a music portal ProstoPleer, in the first place.



Source & References:
Thanks to TorrentFreak for providing the source of the article.
SaM Posted This Article