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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.

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[MagnesG]

No russian translation anymore I guess.

 

[XDel]

A 'free market' doesn't mean not having to pay for things.

I never suggested that, even piracy takes money because you need hardware to store your pirated materials on, then you need a medium to distribute them if you were going to boost them. Likewise if you are going to replicate someone else's project, you still need an assembly line with employees, and so on and so forth. What's being discussed here is how things have went down in Hong Kong for years!

If anything is un-inhibits competition within the market.

 

[HarveyHouston]

This changes nothing, really. I've done pirating before (less so now that I can afford more), and many of the prime torrents, downloaders, etc. are usually Russia-based. Heck, you can even find that stuff on VK! The Kremlin has been looking away from such activities for years, and now they have a law in effect to support it. Basically, it's like:

Before the law, Russia says: What piracy? I don't see any pirates!
After the law is announced: We're going to PIRATE THE WORLD! Take THAT, stupid corporations outside of our homeland!

...And everyone else, even pirates in the United States, shake their head and say "Pathetic".

 

[ertaboy356b]

The piracy that I will support is medicine.

 

[Guacaholey]

Yes. Of course, connecting to a VPN server outside of Russia is going to become tricky. The Russian government is starting to force Russian ISP's to lock down their Internet.




VPN's were conceived for you to access the office LAN from a remote destination. geoblocking didn't exist when they were invented.

Announcing legalization of piracy is not aimed at Russian citizens, it's meant to scare fox/microsoft/etc into demanding that the sanctions are lifted. Putin is an idiot, he just doesn't get it.

Russias government will soon prevent Russian citizens from using VPN, because using a VPN means they are able to see the truth & Putin can't survive if people know the truth.

I can't imagine there are enough sales in Russia for them to care. In fact they probably make more with goodwill convincing people to support their company than they do selling in Russia.

 

[Nincompoopdo]

Garyopa should have ran off to Russia, he could have been rich...

Maybe there will be state sponsored hackers in Russia in the future to crack the Switch.

 

[Taleweaver]

...

Because surely other countries engaging full on war with their neighbors still maintain software police activities?

 

[Aerocool]

This place is Neutral if you want an echo chamber go to reddit.

How can you be neutral in this?

 

[m_babble]

@XDel does "independent research" (Q) and has it all figured out. Everyone applaud the "free thinker".

 

[Glyptofane]

Shocking if true.

Don't worry, it's not.

 

[Noctosphere]

https://gbatemp.net/threads/the-meme-box.532361/page-762#post-9766570
I predicted it, didn't I?

 

[XDel]

@XDel does "independent research" (Q) and has it all figured out. Everyone applaud the "free thinker".

Isn't belief in anything counter to this Q character also a form of mass conformity in the name of free thought, or are such things to be judged on an individual basis in relation to their character to truly know where someone is coming from?

Besides, I'd never heard of Q until late 2020 or early 2021, so If I'm a Q enthusiast, I'm a little late to the party.

 

[blakeana]

as a pirate, russia is based
as a human being, i hope russia gets strangled to death

as a sane man - what does that really change? they were pirating everything on their way anyways *shrug*

 

[Jackson Ferrell]

Get fuck what?

This place is full of MAGA / AFD fucktards it seems.

Tf has this got to do with them, what are you on about?

 

[regnad]

How does this change anything? Russia is already de facto piracy central.

 

[Noctosphere]

How does this change anything? Russia is already de facto piracy central.

Except now... it's not just that they let them do...
They encourage them to do it...

 

[smf]

i dont think VPNs are going to change the way Russians think. We in the US get free flow of information and an election can be rigged and ran without any credibility and even with all the info available we got the puppet president who rigged the election. what does putin care about the truth? in politics there is little truth its who can sell the biggest lie.

You can lie to the American people and they will believe it alot easier than Russians but Russians even when they know the trust still have to fear having alternative thought. the USSR was filled with self policing and some interesting pyschological dynamics.

Satelilte connections and many other things exists that if people in Russia want to use VPN they probably can. RDP into Chinese remote computer and then VPN from there. boom problem solved

The US election wasn't rigged. Democracy means you get outcomes you personally don't agree with, that isn't the same as being rigged. Only the Trump supporters are gullible and that is less than half of the US population.

Russians are made up of two groups, those that know the truth and are scared of the state and those who believe the state.

If the Russian government believed that they could keep people in check using fear alone, then they wouldn't waste their time lying. I happen to agree with them.

Similarly if Trump thought he could get away with all his criminal activities without lying, then he would.

I can't imagine there are enough sales in Russia for them to care. In fact they probably make more with goodwill convincing people to support their company than they do selling in Russia.

I agree, I didn't say it was a good plan. Russia is not well known for it's good plans.

 

[FAST6191]

How does this change anything? Russia is already de facto piracy central.

Central... I might debate that. Big or otherwise key, different matter entirely.

As far as changing things then same reason the US fought tooth and nail for the Antigua thing when they did the same thing back in 2007 ( https://fastoffshore.com/2012/12/antigua-seeks-sanctions-against-us/ for a later summary with some other developments) or possibly the whole "we pay ROMs, the Russian RIAA equivalent, the required fee that was established as pretty much a radio broadcasting fee but somehow applies here therefore our MP3 selling site is legit" thing we saw with allofmp3/mp3search/... (for those unfamiliar they were sites, pretty much exclusively in English despite most there not having much English literacy https://www.ef.com/wwen/epi/regions/europe/russia/ , that allowed users to pay a really low per song/album fee and download essentially any MP3 available within Russia, which included things itunes/apple, the then leading light in downloadable music and when DRM was still a thing for music, would have given their firstborn up for.). That is to say don't allow a foothold with a veneer of legitimacy or for the practice to become established.

 

[SparkyX1]

Shocking if it is true.

Don't worry, it's not it is proven and public information.

Fixed it! Amazing how quickly Russian disinformation campaigns spread.

 

[NoobletCheese]

Fixed it! Amazing how quickly Russian disinformation campaigns spread.

I'm a victim of a Russian disinformation campaign! Thanks for letting me know, now I can go back to being normal.