Russia will allow hacking the programs of the countries that have sanctioned it

March 9, 2022 Matt Mills News 0

The conflict that we are experiencing in Europe after the invasion of Ukraine is having all kinds of sanctions related to technology that show that it is a 21st century war. Recently, many companies have imposed sanctions on Russia , but Putin and his government colleagues intend to live among themselves by taking countermeasures such as legalizing pircy if necessary.

Russia will allow hacking the programs

In a document entitled “ Priority Action Plan to Ensure the Development of the Russian Economy in Conditions of Pressure from External Sanctions ” ( in English in PDF format ), the Russian government details a series of measures with which it intends to circumvent the sanctions—or At least live with them.

Pircy free bar in Russia

This document, prepared by the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, contains several scenarios to deal with the different measures taken by other countries and technology companies and some of them will directly affect the owners of copyrights, patents and trademarks that act in against the interests of Russia.

Rusia piratería

More specifically, point 6.7.3 of that action plan addresses the problem of foreign companies deciding to revoke or issue software licences. According to Russian law before the start of the invasion of Ukraine, unlicensed software is illegal. However, with these new measures , software pircy would be legal in cases where there are no Russian alternatives :

“Cancellation of responsibility for the use of software (SW) without a license in the Russian Federation, owned by a copyright holder of countries that have supported the sanctions”

This proposal would cover both civil and criminal liability (Code of Administrative Offenses and the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) and indicates that, as long as sanctions exist, this hacking would be permissible. The objective would be to reduce dependence on products from foreign companies to also support solutions developed within the territory.

According to article 1360 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the government of the Russian Federation has the right “in an emergency” to decide on the use of an invention, utility model or industrial design without the consent of the patent owner.

Unblock access to torrent sites

Gazeta.ru reported that Russian politician Dmitry Ionin had suggested that, given Western companies’ refusal to release new movies in Russia, perhaps citizens could turn to the RuTracker torrent site .

Companies in the film sector, such as Disney, Warner Bros or Sony Pictures , have announced that they will not release their next releases in the Russian country, affecting works such as Pixar’s Red Alert, Batman or Morbius, respectively.

RuTracker is a pirte torrent website that is “permanently” blocked by Internet operators in Russia for repeatedly infringing copyright, so its decriminalization and granting of access could serve local citizens to access such removed premieres of Russian cinemas. Users of one provider in particular, MTS, later reported being able to access the site, but the reasons for this are unclear as this step has not officially been taken yet.