MOSCOW, September 4 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that he was ready to closely re-examine a controversial new anti-piracy law to have it improved.
“I’m ready to think it over and to look through it, because this really is an important thing. Here we should protect intellectual [property] rights, but, at the same time, not overdo it in order not to ‘kill’ the Internet,” he said.
A controversial law that came into force on August 1 – and has been dubbed the “Russian SOPA” after its scrapped US analogue – allows courts to ban websites for hosting pirated films and television shows.
The law has faced a flurry of criticism from the Russian Internet industry over technicalities, which, industry representatives say, will enable rampant abuse.
Two of the most widely cited alleged flaws are a ban by IP address – which is usually shared by several websites, all of which end up on the blacklist in the event of a ban – and the complaints procedure, which allows the copyright holder to seek a ban on the website without first contacting the uploaders of the video in question.
