Five major US film companies - Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Disney and Paramount - accused a 34-year-old resident of Naberezhnye Chelny Alexey Semenov in violation of copyright on an especially large scale. An engineer may be imprisoned and ordered to pay a fine for posting films and cartoons on the website of a Russian telecommunications company.
The Internet resource where the films were located was checked by the Russian Anti-Piracy Organization. Based on the findings, a criminal case was opened against a resident of Tatarstan, which began to be considered on November 11, 2014. The film company estimated the damage from each of the ten films posted online at approximately $36,000.
Alexey Semenov posted films on the website of the Russian telecommunications company. Photo: www.russianlook.com
Types of software piracy
Let's look at the main types of piracy:
- Illegal copying. This type of piracy occurs most often. This could be the incorrect installation of a significant number of copies of the product, much more than what is provided for in the license agreement. Also included in this type is illegal copying of a product onto disks.
- Installing software on the hard drive. This action should mean the illegal installation of unlicensed programs on your computers or one specific licensed product, but on several computers at once.
- Manufacturing of counterfeit products. In this case, we are talking about large-scale copying of a certain product for the purpose of its further distribution.
- Violation of the license agreement when selling certain types of products. This refers to the sale of a licensed product to a client to whom the requirements and conditions of the license agreement itself do not apply.
- Internet piracy. Everything is simple here, this is the distribution of pirated products via the Internet.
Piracy has an extremely negative impact on the work of companies.
Such companies receive less profit and, accordingly, cannot develop new products.
In this case, not only companies suffer, but the state as a whole, since it does not receive taxes from the sale of IT technologies. Additionally, we note that if the level of piracy decreases, the level of IT technologies will increase sharply.
There are many organizations in the world that fight piracy, the BSA being considered the leading one. Companies that try to save significantly on purchasing software and resort to the services of pirates thereby acquire a lot of problems for themselves. These can be not only huge fines, but also a complete lack of support from the software manufacturer.
Are you often punished for using pirated software?
Most businessmen believe that this will not affect him, because no one will know about the fact of using illegal programs.
But here is the real story that recently happened in the Urals. A mother of many children was tried for installing pirated software. The woman was the founder of a small pipe manufacturing company for more than 14 years. During the inspection, OBEP discovered an unlicensed 1C program on the company’s computers. A criminal case was opened against the woman and taken to court, the damage was estimated at 2.5 million rubles.
This story has a happy ending; 1C representatives entered into a settlement agreement in court, and the woman got off with a fine of 165 thousand rubles.
But here's another story. In one company, an unlicensed 1C program was installed on laptops. Police officers of the Department of Internal Affairs carried out an inspection, as a result of which damage was established in the amount of 545 thousand rubles.
Naturally, the head of the company denied guilt, claiming that the laptops were purchased with a recorded program. But the court is skeptical of such justifications. The manager’s actions were qualified under clause 3 of Art. 146 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on an especially large scale using one’s official position.
The manager was saved from actually serving his sentence by the presence of young children, his state of health, and the commission of a crime for the first time (sentence of the Shpakovsky District Court dated September 24, 2020 No. 1-108/2020).
In another case, the use of unlicensed 1C and 1C-Soft software cost the director a year of freedom. True, then the real sentence was replaced with a suspended sentence (sentence of the Revdinsky City Court dated July 16, 2020 No. 1-201/2020).
Unfortunately, not all such stories have a happy ending.
So, the real criminal sentence under Art. 146 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation received an individual entrepreneur who stored and sold pirated software. The individual entrepreneur stored unlicensed software products “Windows” and “ArchiCAD” on his hard drive. An entrepreneur installed pirated software for money. The total amount of damage amounted to 559 thousand rubles (appeal resolution of the Shatura City Court dated July 15, 2020 No. 10-4/2020).
Punishment for computer piracy
You are deeply mistaken if you think that software piracy is a harmless activity. In fact, this is a criminal business and its turnover is colossal. Your use of pirated programs entails a number of significant problems:
- unstable operation of your computer;
- problems connecting peripherals;
- inability to install the required program update;
- programs on your computer will not work correctly;
- complete lack of technical support from the main developer;
- your computer is under constant threat of virus infection;
- Help file missing.
If you have been accused of piracy, you should know what punishment you can face for it. If accused of plagiarism or piracy, there are several types of liability for copyright infringement:
- Administrative. Provided for in Articles 7.12, 14.33 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation.
- Criminal. Described in Article 46 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
- Civil law. We are talking about Art. 12, 1252, 1301 Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
Administrative responsibility. Import, rental, sale of illegal products is punishable by law.
If you use counterfeit programs on your computer every day, this also amounts to illegal activity and entails severe penalties.
For ordinary citizens, this could be a fine of 1,500 to 2,000 thousand rubles. In this case, officials will pay a fine of 10,000 to 20,000 thousand rubles. Legal entities will have to pay a fine of 30,000 to 40,000 thousand rubles.
Criminal liability. In this case, the punishment will depend on the scale of the crime. This could be a fine of 200,000 thousand rubles. Punishment is also provided in the form of sending you to correctional labor from 180 to 240 hours or imprisonment from two to six years.
What is pirated software?
Pirated software includes the use of any unlicensed software. When using software, businessmen should not forget about the so-called copyright. But licensed software costs money, and not a small one at that, and businesses need accounting programs, antivirus programs, as well as various kinds of specialized programs for designers, etc.
Police officers are conducting surprise raids on companies using pirated software in their businesses. Thus, the most expensive counterfeit program found by the police is the Solidworks design program. For a licensed program with a minimum configuration you will have to pay about 800 thousand rubles.
Protection against computer pirates
Nowadays, every home has a computer with Internet access. How to protect yourself and not fall for the tricks of pirates?
| Name | Precautionary measures |
| Social media | Protection is carried out through the settings in your personal profile. You do not need to provide your personal information, phone number and email address. You should also not indicate your current location. |
| Online services | When registering on sites, try to provide as little information about yourself as possible. If an unofficial site asks you for data, be very careful. |
| Password | You should not use the same password on several resources at once. Moreover, create a password from a large number of numbers and letters. |
| Security software | Be sure to install an antivirus program on your computer, which you should always remember to update. Viruses can not only slow down your PC, but can also be a major cause of leakage of your personal information and data. Recently, accusations of creating a virus have not been uncommon. |
| Letters with attachments | If you receive an email from a subscriber you do not understand, and the email contains an attachment, do not open it under any circumstances. The risk is not appropriate in this case. |
| Internet links of dubious origin. | Often, such links contain malicious software code that steals your data from your computer. If you are not sure about the link, you do not need to follow it. Before opening such a link, carefully study its network address. |
| Wi-Fi network protection | If you have a Wi-Fi network installed at home, be sure to set a password for it. This precaution can save you from many problems. |
Hollywood demands millions
“The man illegally posted on the Internet films such as “X-Men”, “50 First Dates”, “Pleasantville”, “The Fox and the Hound”, “Sherlock Holmes” and others, the copyrights of which belong to well-known companies. Hollywood assessed the damage highly - 11,084,234 rubles 40 kopecks,” says Nail Yunusov, assistant prosecutor of Naberezhnye Chelny.
They acted (RAPO). The organization, created in 1997 by American corporations, controls the media market in Russia.
Still from the film "Sherlock Holmes". Photo: Still from the film
Computer piracy charges
If you have been illegally accused of piracy, then there is only one way out. Be sure to collect evidence of your innocence and write a statement to the police regarding an unfair accusation. In this case, it is advisable to seek help from a lawyer; he will help you resolve the current situation as competently as possible, and if the case goes to court, he will tell you how to behave in court.
It is always worth remembering that piracy is a severely punishable act, and if you are confident that you are right, then you should try by all means to regain your good name. You should also know that the user, that is, you, who downloaded pirated content is not to blame. You are not required to know whether the resource from which you downloaded the information has the rights to distribute it. The owners of this resource must bear full responsibility for the distribution of this pirated content.
If you yourself distribute or post illegal content and also make money from it, know that such actions are illegal and you may be punished.
If you do find yourself in an unpleasant situation, then there is no need to panic. Stop and conduct a detailed analysis of the situation. Carefully check whether you are right in this situation or whether you have violated the copyright of another person. You can always find a way out of any situation. The main thing is to always know your rights and carefully study the rules for using information.
Hit the euro on violators
The Russian system of combating illegal content on the Internet is based, in fact, on the same key principle as in most European countries - blocking by the regulator of pirated resources at the request of the copyright holder.
However, there is a significant difference between domestic and foreign anti-piracy practices. In our country, the inclusion of liability for citizens who download films and TV series from torrents or watch them on illegal sites is only sluggishly discussed, while in some Western countries the punishment provided for by law for individuals can be very harsh. However, the debate about the effectiveness of fines, deprivation of the right to use the Internet, or even prison sentences for pirated users remains open: in several countries there are examples of easing strict standards because they were found to be ineffective. General Director of the Internet Video Association Alexey Byrdin, in a conversation with Tele-Sputnik, admitted that legislation to punish users of pirated video in a number of countries is “bearing fruit”: it acts as a factor that warns users against consuming such content.
It is believed that the most extensive practice of punishing individuals who violate copyright law is in Germany. According to information security company Eset, the relevant German law - UrhG - regulates penalties not for consumption as such, but for the distribution of music, films and software. In this case, UrhG equates downloading such content from a torrent to distribution, since the user can transmit them further, unlike, for example, watching a series on a pirated resource, when the content is not replicated or distributed.
In Germany, during the period of UrhG's existence, a well-functioning mechanism for its application has developed: law firms, in the interests of copyright holders, obtain information from providers about cases of downloading from torrents and issue demands for compensation to violators. Eset clarifies that compensation is a pre-trial stage of resolving the violation, a summons is sent to the user of the torrent, and if he does not pay the fine, the first download will cost 155 euros, subsequent ones - 1000 euros. These amounts were reduced after 2013 - before that the UrhG provided for penalties of 300–1200 euros per case. Here we cannot talk about reducing the punishment due to its ineffectiveness - on the contrary, the collection of compensation was put on stream, and by reducing the amount of penalties, the legislator, in fact, proceeded from the desire to reduce the financial losses of violators.
But in France, in the same 2013, the Hadopi anti-piracy law, which had been in force since 2009, was repealed. Initially, it provided for the disconnection of the consumer of pirated content from the Internet after three warnings by court decision. However, the Constitutional Council of France called the use of the Internet one of the basic rights of a citizen, so the national Ministry of Culture announced in July 2013 that the Internet would not be blocked for violators, but that fines would be imposed: for the first violation you will have to pay 60 euros. During the operation of Hadopi, more than 2 million people received a first warning after consuming pirated software, and 186 thousand received a second warning. The court denied access to the Network to a persistent offender only once, and even then for 15 days.
Another European country where consumers of pirated videos can legally be fined is Finland. Unlike Germany and France, where fines are issued “automatically” in the hundreds of thousands and therefore do not become something out of the ordinary, the Finnish authorities fine violators are rather indicative, since these cases are rare and end up in the news. Thus, in November 2021, the Finnish publication Yle reported a major punishment of a resident of the country who downloaded and illegally distributed an episode of the series “Black Sails”. The law firm Hedman Partners, which represented the copyright holder, filed a lawsuit against the infringer, although the media did not specify whether he was accused of downloading or distribution. Having established the user's identity by IP, the lawyers first demanded compensation in the amount of 600 euros. Finn refused, after the trial the parties agreed to a settlement, but now the compensation was already 12.4 thousand euros. Hedman Partners lawyer Yoni Hatanmaa explained then that such cases happen in his practice, but violators are more willing to accept pre-trial compensation, since bringing the case to court sharply increases the size of the fine.
Russian law on hackers
In our country, everything that is not explicitly prohibited is permitted.
What is prohibited for hackers is stated in four articles of Chapter 28 of the Criminal Code. Let's look at them in order.
PS: In this article I do not consider crimes that do not fall under Chapter 28. For example, here they are trying to prosecute the owner of a proxy for Kate Mobile under Article 132 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violent acts of a sexual nature against an unknown person), since a pedophile used this application.
272 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation “Illegal access to computer information protected by law”
Not all information is protected by law.
That is, for information to become protected, it must be mentioned in a legislative act. If someone got into your computer and stole your course work, then they cannot be prosecuted under this article.
What information is protected by law:
- Secrecy of telephone conversations and any type of text messages. (Article 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation). Fraudsters who stole SMS from number 900 and withdrew money from the victim’s card were prosecuted under this article. (Hello SS7 protocol).
- Commercial (No. 98-FZ) and state secrets (No. 5482-1). For this information, the circle of persons who have access to it and regulations for its use must be strictly defined. That is, information that an ordinary citizen cannot obtain without special permission.
- Medical confidentiality (Article 13 of Law No. 323-FZ). Unauthorized access to Ministry of Health documentation can be prosecuted under this article.
- Banking secrecy (Article 26 of Law No. 395-1).
- Etc.
Also, any information can become “protected by law” if the owner of the information has taken all necessary measures to protect it. (Article 6 of Law No. 149-FZ of July 27, 2006 No. 149-FZ “On Information...”).
If an attacker hacked your website with the login “admin” and password “123” and posted an indecent picture on the main page, then under Art. 272 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation cannot be brought against him, even considering that he had criminal intent. The requirement to update the software on the router is a prerequisite for protecting information.
273 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation Creation, use and distribution of malicious computer programs
This article, of course, includes all viruses and cracks for programs that neutralize software protection.
But pentest programs are a very controversial issue. Such programs must be accompanied by an annotation stating that it can only be used with the consent of the owner of the information system. But if the judiciary needs it, it won’t be too difficult to call this program malicious.
In any case, under this article, they should be caught red-handed when creating, using or knowingly distributing these programs. Or a sincere confession.
And since the overwhelming majority of our investigators are not strong in IT, the sentence under this article often includes the line:
“At the court hearing, the defendant pleaded guilty to the charges brought against him under Art. 273 part 1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation in full and petitioned for a verdict in a special manner, without a trial.”
Therefore, if a collection of cracks is stored on your disk, then this is not grounds for prosecution under this article.
274 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation Violation of the rules for operating means of storing, processing or transmitting computer information and information and telecommunication networks
You can be prosecuted under this article only if the act entailed the destruction, blocking, modification or copying of computer information, causing major damage.
To be honest, I haven’t found any judicial practice on it... Either I’m not looking well, or the Russian Federation hasn’t learned how to apply it.
274.1 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation Unlawful influence on the critical information infrastructure of the Russian Federation
Same situation. The theory behind this article can be found here
An example from my practice
After the next release of the “bank client’s personal account,” the developers made a bug that, when transferring money from a card to an account, did not check the presence of this money on the card.
An ordinary clerk who knows how to click a mouse noticed this bug. I raised some money for myself. And he did this both at work and at home without any VPN. I personally withdrew this money from an ATM. Since the daily limit on the card was set at 25,000 rubles, he did this for several days in a row until this bug was discovered at the bank. When they found him and offered to voluntarily return the loot without contacting the police (after all, the bank and SB Bank understood this), he refused, saying it’s not my problem that your system is giving out loot.
The dude was convicted under Part 1 of Art. 272 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, since he knowingly and unlawfully modified legally protected banking information.
Damage
Even if the hacker’s actions do not constitute a crime, damage can be obtained in a civil manner (Civil Code of the Russian Federation, Article 1064).
For example, if I updated the firmware on a leaky Mikrotik and it became “bricked,” then the owner of this router (after refusing to initiate a claim) could sue me in civil court and ask the court to recover this damage from me.
What is copyright
We use ready-made programs, but each of them requires months, and sometimes years of hard work. Did you know that there are 10 thousand active patents? This means that such objects are subject to protection. Russia has ratified most international covenants providing copyright protection.
The owner of the copyright has the right:
- distribute the product for free;
- sell the program through a dealer;
- implement the software yourself.
It turns out that copyright is virtual only conditionally
. Any violation can be tracked: attempts at illegal sales, hacking of security, illegal renewal of certificates. You will be surprised, but real sanctions are provided for all these violations.
The object of copyright can be any digital information: a film, a song, a book, a program (including antivirus). Its value is determined based on the assessment of the copyright holder. Some professional programs (3D Max, AutoCad) can cost tens of thousands of rubles
. One illegal download is enough to cause significant damage to the owner.
How are violations actually detected?
The police have nothing else to do - just sit on the Internet and look for software thieves. I’ll tell you a secret: this is done by copyright holders, as well as the lawyers they hire.
. Specialists are primarily interested in software sellers, but buyers can also be targeted. And the Internet, as you know, remembers everything. As well as digital devices on which pirated products were installed illegally.
Schematically, the search for a violation looks like this:
- a “legal sheriff” buys a product from an illegal seller and records the transaction;
- the electronic detective contacts the police department with a request to conduct an investigation;
- law enforcement officers initiate criminal or administrative proceedings;
- draw up a report or initiate a criminal case - and that’s it.
A dilemma arises: the seller needs to promote an illegal product, but then it immediately comes to the attention of the “sheriffs”. To evade responsibility, sellers use different schemes
. However, the most zealous ones are still identified.
