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In the aftermath of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, many companies in the West have stopped doing business with the country, including plenty of technology and software companies. Tech giants Apple, Microsoft, Sony and Adobe have pulled products and services from Russia, along with plenty of gaming companies, like Nintendo, Activision Blizzard, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Take-Two Interactive and Epic Games, just to name a few.

However, as reported by TorrentFreak, Russia may change its laws to waive all punishments for software piracy, as long as the software originates from a company that is supporting the sanctions on Russia, and no Russian equivalent exists. In a document titled "Priority Action Plan for Ensuring the Development of the Russian Economy in the Conditions of External Sanctions Pressure," the Ministry of Economic Development proposes a number of measures to lessen the impact of these sanctions. One idea under consideration, point 6.7.3, reads “Cancellation of liability for the use of software (SW) unlicensed in the Russian Federation, owned by a copyright holder from countries that have supported the sanctions.”

A similar item, 6.7.1, regards intellectual property rights, removing punishments for violating intellectual property when it comes to "rights to an invention, utility model, industrial design in relation to computer programs, databases, topologies of integrated circuits." CityAM, a business and financial newspaper based out of London, has reported that this measure has been approved, citing state-sanctioned newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta as its source. While this doesn't apply to software (the measure simply allows "Russian firms [...] to use innovations from unfriendly countries without paying to use the IP," as CityAM explains), if this measure has been passed, it's possibly 6.7.3 has been or will be soon. Of course, being a state-owned newspaper, any reports from Rossiyskaya Gazeta should be taken with a grain of salt. Similarly, according to gazeta.ru, Russian politician Dmitry Ionin has proposed unblocking certain torrent trackers in the country in response to Hollywood films not being released in the country. While it still appears to be blocked, and the report may be fraudulent, it would be an unprecedented move for the Russian government to make.

itch.io's Bundle for Ukraine is still available for the next six days. It contains nearly a thousand games and assets for just $10, and has raised over $4 million so far, with all proceeds going to charities to support Ukraine. It contains some popular games like SkateBIRD, SUPERHOT, Celeste and Towerfall: Ascension.

Source

 

[SDA]

Kirby and the Forgotten Land is definitely not going to come out in Russia. See, games for the Switch are being translated in Russian, but now this won't happen again. Maybe Nintendo will even stop selling stuff there.

 

[Valwinz]

Starting? They were blaming West for years, this is how Russian propaganda works. Putin is great, Stalin was great, Lenin was great. If not West, they would be rich.

i guess all those people protesting in Russia are fake videos ? thanks for telling me western media lie to me again.

 

[Glyptofane]

also, i guess the next time Israel steamrolls Palestine the same companies will close their stores there right?

I was thinking this as well. Shouldn't these companies have pulled out of Israel and US long ago? US has actually bombed Somalia since this Russia scam began and Israel terrorizing Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon is pretty much a non-stop way of life. Where's all the outrage over any of that?

 

[Coto]

i guess all those people protesting in Russia are fake videos ? thanks for telling me western media lie to me again.

maybe, I guess these were real russian people, and possibly knowing where they'd come from.

 

[NoobletCheese]

As long as those companies stop doing business with other countries that are doing similarly bad things.

Disclaimer: I'm not a supporter of Russia or Ukraine. The burden of proof is on whoever is doing violence.

 

[Xzi]

maybe, I guess these were real russian people, and possibly knowing where they'd come from.

Your average citizen in Russia is against the war (assuming they're correctly informed about it). That doesn't take away from masagrator's point that Russian government propaganda has always been a thing in one form or another. A lot of people here had clearly bought into it, though it should be obvious now that their bark was bigger than their bite. The Russian military is struggling big time against a force a fraction of the size.

 

[Coto]

Your average citizen in Russia is against the war (assuming they're correctly informed about it). That doesn't take away from masagrator's point that Russian government propaganda has always been a thing in one form or another. A lot of people here had clearly bought into it, though it should be obvious now that their bark was bigger than their bite. The Russian military is struggling big time against a force a fraction of the size.

bingo

edit: ask any citizen against the war what are their reasons

 

[Snintendog]

I was thinking this as well. Shouldn't these companies have pulled out of Israel and US long ago? US has actually bombed Somalia since this Russia scam began and Israel terrorizing Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon is pretty much a non-stop way of life. Where's all the outrage over any of that?

"its Different when we do it." Is the only response i can give with somalia. But palestein are clear agressors for the last.....40 years to the point Isreal had to devolop an anti rocket intercept array from short range rockets to protect their borders.

 

[duwen]

With the economic lockdown, where money can't get out of the country, I'm almost sure they can't use a VPN from a foreign country to access the outside internet.

I'd be willing to bet that VPN vendors in Russia are not abundant. If Mother Russia blocks the outside internet, Russians will be closed off from democracy.

We should bomb them to free them of the tyranny of bad men.

That would be bizarre, as VPN's were initially conceived to allow residents of 'restricted' locations to access the unrestricted web. A quick google shows that VPN's are indeed (especially right now) virtually a necessity in Russia.
...so why conceive allowing piracy when they could just advise VPN usage to get around geo-blocking?

 

[andyhappypants]

Trump had the best idea, Paint the chinese flag on US bombers and bomb the shit out of moscow.

Fuck Russia in every possible way.

 

[Snintendog]

That would be bizarre, as VPN's were initially conceived to allow residents of 'restricted' locations to access the unrestricted web. A quick google shows that VPN's are indeed (especially right now) virtually a necessity in Russia.
...so why conceive allowing piracy when they could just advise VPN usage to get around geo-blocking?

its due to the SWIFT banking system blocking their money world wide litterally making russia independent from the world unable to trade in any way possible.

 

[FAST6191]

There is precedent for this.

Few years back there was Caribbean country (Antigua for the curious) which had its gambling industry knocked by US. Accordingly it dropped enforcement of IP laws against the US to an extent.

It was even ruled a valid sanction in court, albeit limited.

https://fastoffshore.com/2012/12/antigua-seeks-sanctions-against-us/

Trump had the best idea, Paint the chinese flag on US bombers and bomb the shit out of moscow.

Wearing uniform of another country is a serious serious war crime.

its due to the SWIFT banking system blocking their money world wide litterally making russia independent from the world unable to trade in any way possible.

Trade is still possible, just very annoying as swift is the easy mode of transfers.

 

[Guacaholey]

I was thinking this as well. Shouldn't these companies have pulled out of Israel and US long ago? US has actually bombed Somalia since this Russia scam began and Israel terrorizing Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon is pretty much a non-stop way of life. Where's all the outrage over any of that?

That would be the consistent thing to do, but stop selling stuff in Israel and you'll be accused of being an anti-Semite. The truth is people just don't like Russia and companies are halting sales and payment from there because it won't make much of a difference because it's not a very wealthy area. Annual income is only like $6000 USD there. If the companies really cared about what countries do, they should've stopped selling in Israel last year, and shouldn't be selling in China at all. But China is an economic powerhouse so no company will stop selling stuff there regardless of how many re-education camps they have, or what they do to territories like Hong Kong.

 

[Glyptofane]

That would be the consistent thing to do, but stop selling stuff in Israel and you'll be accused of being an anti-Semite. The truth is people just don't like Russia and companies are halting sales and payment from there because it won't make much of a difference because it's not a very wealthy area. Annual income is only like $6000 USD there. If the companies really cared about what countries do, they should've stopped selling in Israel last year, and shouldn't be selling in China at all. But China is an economic powerhouse so no company will stop selling stuff there regardless of how many re-education camps they have, or what they do to territories like Hong Kong.

I haven't looked at the exact numbers for all of it, but I think McDonald's said Russia was 9% of their global market, so it's not chump change exactly. It's billions of dollars collectively with some of it no longer being generated at all and the rest going directly to China. It's great for China, Russia will probably pull through okay, and terrible for US and Europe.

 

[andyhappypants]

There is precedent for this.

Few years back there was Caribbean country (Antigua for the curious) had its gambling industry knocked by US. Accordingly it dropped enforcement of IP laws against the US to an extent.

It was even ruled a valid sanction in court, albeit limited.

https://fastoffshore.com/2012/12/antigua-seeks-sanctions-against-us/



Wearing uniform of another country is a serious serious war crime.


Trade is still possible, just very annoying as swift is the easy mode of transfers.

So is using illegal weapons against civilians. Lets play them at their own game.

 

[Searinox]

"I obtained my media legally in Russia and then left the country with it."

 

[Xzi]

So is using illegal weapons against civilians. Lets play them at their own game.

To some extent I agree, if Russia is going to keep committing war crimes and keep lying their asses off about everything, I say we transfer the jets over to Ukraine and just claim they were stolen. We left them running in the driveway to warm up the engines in the morning.

 

[CompSciOrBust]

I still very much hate the Russian government for what they're doing to Ukraine but credit where it's due, this is pretty based. I wonder if this would allow for the production of Switch chips in russia since the eshop is closed and there is no Russian 3rd party game store to buy digital titles.

 

[Lacius]

Piracy is illegal?

 

[64bitmodels]

based russia