Copyright holders, search engine operators and owners of video hosting sites signed a memorandum of cooperation on copyright protection in the digital environment.
The signing ceremony took place at the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor). Among those taking part in the event were the leading figures of the media holdings Gazprom-Media, All-Russian State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company, National Media Group, STS Media, as well as Channel One, representatives of the Association of Film and Television Producers, Internet-Video and online companies Yandex, Mail.ru Group, Rambler&Co, Ruform, and Kinopoisk.
Dmitry Chernyshenko, CEO of Gazprom-Media Holding, signed the memorandum on behalf of Gazprom-Media, stressing the particular importance of this document for the media market and the Holding.
“We produce 22,000 hours of premium content per year and restoring order between the right holders and Internet sites is vital for us. Tens of billions of rubles are spent on creating content. For us, this is not a matter of prestige, but of financial stability and financial security,” said Dmitry Chernyshenko.
The memorandum prescribes an algorithm for erasing links to sites that violate copyrights from the search engine results. According to the document, in the next three weeks the rights holders will create a special register of links where content is posted illegally. The administrators of online companies that signed the memorandum promised to look at this registry on a daily basis and, within six hours, exclude the links to the listed websites from their searches.
Speaking at the signing ceremony, the head of Roskomnadzor, Alexander Zharov, noted that the memorandum lays the foundations of self-regulation between content producers and Internet sites as part of the “anti-piracy” law and will prevent the violation of copyrights and related rights online.
“As a result of signing the document, the Russian Internet will become the world’s cleanest space from piracy,” he said.
The memorandum will be in effect until 1 September 2019, inclusively.