Russia’s ‘SOPA’ Passes Duma, Could Become Law by August 1

MOSCOW—An anti-piracy bill dubbed Russia’s SOPA has survived its three required readings in the State Duma, and now only needs to be approved by the upper house and President Putin for it to become law, which is expected despite escalating objections from, among others, Google and Yandex, Russia's biggest online search engine. In fact, the legislation appears to be on a fast track for an August 1 implementation. According to rt.com, “The bill was passed in the second and third reading on Friday as 337 of 450 MPs voted for it. Only one MP voted against and there were no abstentions.” The description of what it does explains why, as with the 2011 Stop Online Piracy Act, objections by online companies are so fierce. “The bill allows the blocking of whole web-sites that distribute pirated content after the copyright holder writes a complaint to a specially set up official body,” reported rt.com. “Fifteen days later the case would go to the Moscow City Court, which will now decide on all film piracy cases in the country. If the court finds the law has not been broken access to the site must be re-opened. If the complaint is upheld the site remains blocked and will be put on a special blacklist.” Adding an especially problematic wrinkle, it will be the site’s IP address that will be blocked by Russian ISPs, noted TorrentFreak, which added, “The blocking of IP addresses, which can be shared by many sites, is terrifying web companies.” Yandex warned, “It’s like forever closing the highway, on which there was only one accident.” For the moment, the bill only covers movies and television series, but the government is expected to consider adding other types of content. That fact has some people very concerned that the bill is getting off to a bad start. “Like other bills that have tried to combat piracy, this bill offer problematic language related to takedowns,” said GamePolitics.com. “All a rights holder needs in order to file a complaint is the name of the artist/creator and the content’s name…  It does not need to point out a specific location of where the offending material is found, thus putting the onus on Internet companies to find and remove it.” It’s possible that moderating language could still be added to the bill as it now stands, but the window is closing fast. If as anticipated it becomes law as is, people who supported (and presumably still support) SOPA will soon be able to see what happens when anti-piracy legislation written by attorneys for the movie and television industries is enacted. So, of course, will everyone else.