Yandex says taking part in discussion of new anti-piracy concept

MOSCOW, Sep 20 (PRIME) -- Russian Internet company Yandex is participating in the discussion of a new anti-piracy concept that should take into account interests of users, copyright holders, and other players of the Internet market, a company spokesperson told PRIME on Thursday.

“Drawbacks in the proposed wording of the current law can result in full blocking of any Internet service, including Yandex, other search engines, social networks, and video hostings. In the current situation, Yandex is actively participating in the discussion of the concept taking into account interests of users, copyright holders, and other players of the Internet markets ,” the spokesperson said.

“We think (the concept) should be transparent, applicable to all, and shared by all the parties. It is vital for further development of legal use of audio visual works in the network.”

Mass media earlier reported citing sources that Yandex, media holdings, and officials are considering an out-of-court mechanism of erasing links to websites with illegal content from search results.

A spokesperson for Gazprom-Media Holding confirmed that the company participates in the talks on regulation of the anti-piracy activities along with all members of the media industry.

The holding’s TV channels earlier went to court against Yandex because its search engine had given links to websites with pirated series of the channels. Under a threat of blocking, the Internet company deleted links, but court hearings are still in progress.

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