Search results : 241

On 25 May 2012, the Thirteen Arbitrage Appeal Court of St. Petersburg (commercial court of second instance) upheld a ruling of the court of first instance that found the popular social network VKontakte liable for a violation of the intellectual property rights of two record label companies (S.B.A. Music Publishing and S.B.A. Production). A fine of RUB 210,000 (approximately EUR 5,000) was imposed upon VKontakte for the act of placing on the social network’s website and making available to the public the music and phonograms of 17 songs of the Russian pop groups “Maksim” and “Infinity”. The act...

The President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev by his decree of 17 April 2012 set legal conditions to establish a TV channel “Public Television of Russia.” Its aim shall be to inform population “in a timely, trustworthy and all-sided manner on current affairs of domestic and foreign policy, culture, education, sciences, spiritual life and in other spheres.” A Council on Public Television shall be established within three months to provide “public control over the activity of the TV channel.” Candidates for the Council will be put forward by the citizens, approved by the Public Chamber...

The Russian Supreme Court has recently held two Plenary Meetings that resulted in similar resolutions that provide explanations to all judges in the country on the issues of court practice relating to crimes of terrorism and extremism. The Resolution “On Judicial Practice Relating to Criminal Cases on Crimes of an Extremist Nature” of 28 June 2011 instructs judges that when adjudicating on such cases they should take into account both security of public interests (i.e., foundations of the constitutional regime, and integrity and security of the Russian Federation) and protection of human rights...

On 8 December 2011 the Government of the Russian Federation adopted an ordinance that approved new rules on licensing television and radio broadcasting. This follows the entering into force on 10 November 2011 of the Statute “On amending some legal acts of the Russian Federation in order to improve legal regulation in the sphere of mass information” (see IRIS 2011-7/42), The rules set down that the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Telecommunications, Information Technologies and Mass Communications remains the licensing body. This Service, under the Ministry of Communications and...

The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) Interparliamentary Assembly which is currently comprised of delegations from the parliaments of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russian Federation, Tajikistan and Ukraine enacted on 16 May 2011 a Model Statute on the Basics of Internet Regulation (Модельный закон «Об основах регулирования Интернета»). It consists of 3 chapters with a total of 13 articles. The Act sets out principles and determines major directions of regulation of relations that have to do with the use of Internet, sets procedures for state support of its...