Russia Could Pass SOPA-Like Legislation By August

Taiwan were the most recent country to reject SOPA-like legislation and you would of thought governments over the world would have learnt from the public outcry against various attempts to censor the internet. Well apparently not as Russia are pushing ahead with their SOPA-like legislation and it could be implemented within a couple of months.

TorrentFreak has broken the news about the Russian Government introducing a draft bill which has passed through its final two readings in the Russian State Duma as of yesterday. Lawmakers have fast-tracked the controversial legislation despite opposition from both Google and Yandex.

The new Russian proposal now needs upper house and presidential approval to come into effect on August the 1st. The new legislation would allow sites to be rapidly blocked by ISPs on allegations of copyright infringement. Copyright holders can complain directly to the Russian courts if infringing content is suspected. Those websites then have to remove all infringing material within 72 hours or face a full IP address ban. There is great concerabout IP bans as IP addresses can be shared by many sites and dynamic/shifting IP addresses could cause havoc.

“This approach is technically illiterate and endangers the very existence of search engines, and any other Internet resources. This version of the bill is directed against the logic of the functioning of the Internet and will hit everyone – not just internet users and website owners, but also the rightsholders” a spokesman for Yandex said in a statement. “It’s like forever closing the highway, on which there was only one accident.”

Apparently when the legislation comes into effect only TV shows and films are covered but further negotiations are expected to extend that to cover things like video games, books and so on, at a later date.

Image courtesy of Digital Trends