• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Russia has reportedly legalised some piracy in response to sanctions and boycotts (VCG)

kingfey

Banned

Russia is reportedly in the process of changing its piracy laws in a bid to combat widespread boycotts and sanctions placed on it by western countries following its invasion of Ukraine.

Citing state-backed newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, City AM reports that the Russian government has already altered some local intellectual property (IP) rules in order to bypass rights held by western patent holders.

According to the report, Russian has “effectively legalised piracy” by introducing new laws allowing companies to use innovations from ‘unfriendly’ countries without paying to use their IP.

While this generally refers to allowing Russian producers to manufacture certain goods that are usually supplied by other western companies, it could also be extended to using unlicensed software.

Torrent Freak reported earlier this week that Russia’s proposed plans included reference to foreign companies revoking or refusing to issue software licences.

A government document titled ‘Priority Action Plan for Ensuring the Development of the Russian Economy in the Conditions of External Sanctions Pressure’ referred to the potential “cancellation of liability for the use of software unlicensed in the Russian Federation, owned by a copyright holder from countries that have supported the sanctions”.

The proposed measure covers both civil and criminal liability. If approved, it means Russia wouldn’t charge anyone who illegally used software whose copyright holder is based in one of the countries that has sanctioned Russia.

Most major gaming companies have suspended sales of their products in Russia, including leading console makers.

Xbox owner Microsoft announced last Friday that it had stopped selling products and services in Russia.

This Wednesday, Sony Interactive Entertainment also said it had “suspended all software and hardware shipments, the launch of Gran Turismo 7, and operations of the PlayStation Store in Russia”.

And Nintendo confirmed on Thursday that it was suspending all shipments of hardware and software to Russia “for the foreseeable future”, citing “considerable volatility surrounding the logistics of shipping and distributing physical goods”.

Other major gaming companies to suspend sales in Russia include Electronic Arts, CD Projekt, Take-Two, Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard and Epic Games.

Niantic also confirmed today that its mobile games, including Pokémon Go, would soon no longer work in Russia.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
ezgif.com-optimize-2.gif
 

Allandor

Member
This is a shot in the own foot. If they use software without license, it is much cheaper to just use software without a license instead of using something that was developed in their own country. So they actually kill their own software companies as "cracking software" is always cheaper than buying an alternative in the own country.
 
Last edited:

//DEVIL//

Member
This is a shot in the own foot. If they use software without license, it is much cheaper to just use software without a license instead of using something that was developed in their own country. So they actually kill their own software companies as "cracking software" is always cheaper than buying an alternative in the own country.
What on earth are you talking about ? They allowed paid games to be legally ok to get them for free . All those US / euro / Japanese publishers that used to get money from Russian gamers ( regardless if sales were great or or not ) is gone .
which is not good for publishers and I am pretty sure they are very pissed about it.

Has nothing to do with their own software
 
Last edited:

Kokoloko85

Member
Good for them. Playstation,Nintendo/ MS should never have blocked sales.
They’ve never got involved in politics before like this. When even worse has happened and more people have died they never done anything.

Escapism and entertainment doesn’t need be blocked, delayed or sanctioned because a bunch of rich politicians wanna have a war for resources.
Politicians have gone to war for hundreds of years, nothing new here
 
Last edited:

Allandor

Member
What on earth are you talking about ? They are allowed paid games to be legally ok to get them for free . All those US / euro / Japanese publishers that used to get money from Russian gamers ( regardless if allot or not ) is gone .

which is not good for publishers and I am pretty sure they are very pissed about it.

Has nothing to do with their own software
That money is gone under the current cicumstances (this rule doesn't change much). But their own software industry (not gaming related) will be died out by these measures. They can't sell their software outside of russia and they can't sell it in russia (because of these new rules)
 
Last edited:

GHG

Gold Member
Good for them. Playstation,Nintendo/ MS should never have blocked sales.
They’ve never got involved in politics before like this. When even worse has happened and more people have died they never done anything, must be the new social media/propaganda machine.

Escapism and entertainment doesn’t need be blocked, delayed or sanctioned because a bunch of rich politicians wanna have a war for resources.

Politicians have gone to war for hundreds of years, nothing new here

The idea was to attempt to make the Russian people want to push Putin out or at least influence him to withdraw from Ukraine.

But what's actually happening is that he's tightening his control of everything. He's saying he's banning foreign business interests in the country, he's blaming the West for the demise of their currency and overall he's collectively making foreign countries the boogeyman. This piracy measure is a prime example, they will spin this in a way that makes them appear to be the good guys.

This isn't going as planned. Cutting the Russian people off from the outside world only means they fall further under his influence. He was already brainwashing his people, it's only going to get worse now that they will have zero exposure to the rest of the world.
 

VN1X

Banned
They're discussing nationalizing tons of businesses as well. They could basically take all the closed McDonalds and just reopen them as McDowells.

YG464WUGKVF2RKRVGQ6PRHZGTI.png


It would be the end of foreign investment in Russia for decades.
Isn't the joke that all these US corporations pulling out of Russia mean that the Russian people will now be the healthiest and well-informed in the world? :messenger_grinning_sweat:
 
Isn't the joke that all these US corporations pulling out of Russia mean that the Russian people will now be the healthiest and well-informed in the world? :messenger_grinning_sweat:
I'm sure the population is going to go through a lot of hardship. I get the joke; fast food sucks of course. 🤷‍♂️
 

kraspkibble

Permabanned.
Good luck pirating Xbox or PS5 software.
getting the games off the consoles is the easy part, i think. it's the trying to get it running on other hardware. i'm sure someone will be able to rip Xbox/PS5 games no problem but if they share it then it'll be difficult or straight up impossible for anyone to run it on their console.

emulating the games on PC is another story. You can emulate PS3 games on PC with good quality and performance. I'm not sure how PS4 emulation is going and PS5 emulation is a LONG way off.
 

MMaRsu

Banned
I mean it's not as if big tech in general and all these other giant corporations are exactly beacons of positive influence are they?
What do you even mean bro

Putin is out here bombing schools, what is your point exactly?
 

justiceiro

Marlboro: Other M
Oh, so that is the supposed "never seen before consequences" that Putin threatened to apply to countries that supported the other side. Spooky.
 

GHG

Gold Member
What do you even mean bro

Putin is out here bombing schools, what is your point exactly?

If he cared about American business presence in his country then he wouldn't have invaded Ukraine.

Everything was outlined in the buildup, nothing was a surprise.
 

IFireflyl

Gold Member
This is a shot in the own foot. If they use software without license, it is much cheaper to just use software without a license instead of using something that was developed in their own country. So they actually kill their own software companies as "cracking software" is always cheaper than buying an alternative in the own country.
That money is gone under the current cicumstances (this rule doesn't change much). But their own software industry (not gaming related) will be died out by these measures. They can't sell their software outside of russia and they can't sell it in russia (because of these new rules)

I think you missed part of the post:

The proposed measure covers both civil and criminal liability. If approved, it means Russia wouldn’t charge anyone who illegally used software whose copyright holder is based in one of the countries that has sanctioned Russia.

It would still be illegal for Russian citizens to pirate/steal from any country that isn't sanctioning Russia, which includes their own country of Russia.
 

MMaRsu

Banned
If he cared about American business presence in his country then he wouldn't have invaded Ukraine.

Everything was outlined in the buildup, nothing was a surprise.

Nothing was a surprise? How do you know this lmao

Assumptions assumptions all around

Propaganda all around too

Keep your head on a swivel guys

Fuck Putin

He might not care about American business but their economy does. And it will get worse (much more so for civilians, not so much for Putin or milionaires there)
 

GHG

Gold Member
Nothing was a surprise? How do you know this lmao

Assumptions assumptions all around

Propaganda all around too

Keep your head on a swivel guys

Fuck Putin

He might not care about American business but their economy does. And it will get worse (much more so for civilians, not so much for Putin or milionaires there)

Don't follow the news much do you? Biden had a phone call with Putin on the 12th February. He was told and still said fuck it.

The guy has lost his mind, he doesn't give a shit.
 
Top Bottom