Yandex says links to disputed content erased, to contest ruling

MOSCOW, Aug 30 (PRIME) -- Russian Internet company Yandex will delete from search results all links to the pages with disputed series of local Gazprom-Media Holding to avoid blocking of its video service, but users will also lose the way to legal content, the company said on Thursday.

Yandex explained that the search engine cannot distinguish between legal and pirated content.

The communications service has given Yandex time until Friday to follow a decision of the Moscow City Court that ordered to take interim measures and stop an illegal distribution of the content of Gazprom-Media Holding’s four TV channels, TNT, TV-3, 2?2, and Super.

Since the given time expires late on Thursday, Yandex.Video could be blocked if no steps are taken, and the move could mute the whole of yandex.ru.

“In order to minimize the risk of blocking, which would hurt the users of Yandex, we’ve decided to delete from search all links to the pages with the disputed works,” a spokesperson for the Internet giant said.

“The truth is the demands we are faced with are unfeasible. Yandex does not place content in the Web and, consequently, cannot delete it. Besides, Yandex cannot establish the fact of the presence of rights for content at a website. Correspondingly, Yandex cannot separate disputed content from legal. This is why the links we’ve deleted may include those to the content released by copyright holders themselves. As a result, users lost an opportunity to find legal content on Yandex, and resources of Gazprom-Media could have lost a part of traffic.”

Yandex still intends to challenge the court’s decision on Gazprom-Media Holding’s content and to work with the participants of the market to find a solution to the piracy problem.

“A good solution to the piracy problem should meet two criteria: transparency and equal applicability. We are a copyright holder ourselves and we will cooperate with other right owners, regulators, and other actors of the industry to create a system that would marry both principles,” the Yandex spokesperson said.

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