Enterprise Development Institute proposed to allow the use of software without a license

The Institute for the Development of Entrepreneurship and Economics sent a request to the Ministry of Digital Transformation to allow the use of software without a license and to abolish administrative and criminal liability. The organization said that foreign companies do not renew the license, and it takes time to switch to Russian software. This was reported “News”.

70% of Russian companies are experiencing difficulties due to restrictions on foreign Internet services and the exit from the market of some suppliers of imported software, follows from a letter from the Institute to the Ministry of Digital Development.

The letter notes that industry and retail cannot function without IT solutions. “The stable operation of the software becomes a factor in food security,” the authors of the letter noted.

Now, the use of unlicensed software provides for administrative and criminal liability: fines of up to 40 thousand (Article 7.12 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation) and up to six years in prison (Article 146 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).

According to the Yale School of Management, 118 foreign software developers left Russia in 2022, and 26 laid off work.

At the end of March, Russian President Vladimir Putin banned the use of foreign software at critical information infrastructure facilities from 2025 in order to “ensure technological independence and security”.

In July, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced the acceleration of bringing domestic software developments to the Russian market. The Competence Center for Import Substitution in the Field of Information and Communication Technologies announced plans to replace foreign software with Russian by 70% by 2030

Read about measures to support domestic software developers in the material “Kommersant” “Software in demand”.

Polina Sobakina