hard-to-get-a-nickna's Journal: Russia toughens copyright laws

The Russian newspaper's website Kommersant reports that a law reforming copyrights rules and extending them to Internet voted in 2004 went into force Friday September 1. After tough debates in France and UK about DRMs status and attempts to legalize filesharing, the new Russian law appears to be one of the most repressive. According to this law, Russian websites owners selling unlawfully music online are risking up to 5 years in jail:

Amendments to the law "About copyright and allied rights" were ratified in July 2004. However, they come into force on September 1, 2006. Basically, they make legal the concept of "notifying everyone" which brings the Internet under the jurisdiction of law. Thus, texts of books or mp3 music files published on the web have the same copyright protection as normal books or CDs, and come under article 146 of the Criminal Code of Russia ("Violation of copyright and allied rights) which allows a punishment of imprisonment for up to 5 years for pirates.