Illegally filming at the cinema will be equated with violators: they will be taken out of the hall

Illegally filming movies in the hall of cinemas will be equated with those who drink alcohol and will be taken out during the session. The State Duma adopted the corresponding bill in the first reading. True, the mechanism for implementing the measures proposed in it seems incomprehensible to many deputies: the Ministry of Internal Affairs does not want to deal with violators, and it is not yet proposed to introduce administrative fines.

The bill was prepared by the government at the request of the owners of cinemas, Deputy Minister of Culture Alla Manilova explained to the deputies. Changes will be made to the current law “On State Support for Cinematography in the Russian Federation”. Firstly, the concept of “cinema” will appear in it, and the administration of these institutions will be obliged to notify the audience about the evacuation from the building that has begun in case of emergencies. And secondly, audio and (or) video recording of films shown and their fragments during a session in the hall will be strictly prohibited, and a visitor who violates the ban may be “refused to provide services”, that is, they will be taken out of the hall, as they have long been doing with those who drink alcohol , Ms. Manilova explained. The proposed measures are very relevant, she assured: filmmakers receive the main income from distribution in cinemas, while one of the main problems was the appearance on the Internet of pirated copies of films recorded directly in the cinema, the so-called. screen copies. The explanatory note to the bill states that, according to statistics, over the weekend, pirated content, especially new films released in cinemas on Thursday evening (the traditional day of the premiere), “has the highest number of requests.”

The first deputy head of the Duma Committee on Culture, Elena Drapeko (“SR”), proposed to support the bill. But there are doubts: “how will the ban be implemented in practice – what, will they turn on the lights in the hall and stop broadcasting for everyone if an intruder is detected? And does the administration of the cinema have the right to take the violator under the arms and take him out, or will it be necessary to invite the police? Ms. Drapeko said that the committee had agreed to invite representatives of law enforcement agencies and experts before the second reading and discuss all controversial issues with them.

In addition, even now the obligations of film demonstrators and the rights and obligations of visitors are spelled out in the Rules for the provision of services for showing films in cinema halls (they are approved by a government decree), it is recalled in the conclusion of the relevant committee, and these rules say not only a ban on filming, but also on the prohibition to bring into the hall strong-smelling substances and objects that pollute the chairs and clothes of visitors, pyrotechnic products and laser pointers, etc., etc. The Committee considers it right then to transfer all other prohibitions to the law, not only the one related to pirated filming.

The topic aroused great interest in the meeting room. Igor Antropenko (ER) asked if it would be possible to take selfies in the hall against the background of the screen, or shoot, for example, short videos for TikTok. Ms. Manilova replied that taking pictures against the background of the screen is “not piracy”, but the video is piracy, and the bill refers not only to the film as a whole, but also to its fragment.

“We are 10-15 years late with the ban,” said Andrey Turov (ER). But Ms. Manilova does not think so: according to her, the idea of ​​the bill “was born from the appeals of the community of copyright holders and owners of cinemas” who asked for a direct legislative ban on screen filming. In the 1990s, yes, this was also the case, the deputy minister recalled, but “the quality was different, and you could always tell whether it was a screen shot or the original, but today the technologies are such that it is impossible to distinguish one from the other.”

“No private security has the right to use violence against violators, and modern filming methods are such that they cannot be fixed by the caretaker in the hall – there are special glasses, other devices,” said Alexei Kurinny (KPRF). Ms. Manilova replied that there was no problem detecting violations: “The screens in cinemas today are equipped with special sensors that directly indicate from which row and in what form the filming is taking place.” But so far, the law allows you to be held liable for this only if the shooting is done in order to extract profit, “but you can never prove this motive, because the filmer will say that he does everything for his own consumption, personal viewing at home.” “I am confident that we are doing the right thing in responding to business demand,” she said.

As for the fines or the involvement of the police, it followed from the words of the deputy minister that one could not count on either: when preparing the bill, the Ministry of Culture tried to prepare the introduction of appropriate amendments to the Code of Administrative Offenses. But the question arose – who would write the protocols. The Ministry of Culture will not be able to, because there are regional departments of the department only in five cities of Russia, and the Ministry of Internal Affairs “categorically refused to take on additional powers.” Therefore, they decided that since the “termination of services” rule applies to persons with alcohol intoxication, it will also work in the case of pirates. But to remove violators, according to her, it is necessary “delicately, without violating the rights of other viewers.”

Some deputies decided to go further. “It is right to protect intellectual property when it comes to Indian and Chinese film producers, for example, but shouldn’t those who stole $300 billion from us be outlawed, why protect them?” asked Mikhail Delyagin (SR) ). He meant film studios from the so-called. “unfriendly” countries. And Biysultan Khamzaev (ER) called a spade a spade, proposing not to protect the copyrights of those “who steal from us” and to legitimize the compulsory licensing of Western films, the distribution of which in Russia is prohibited by their producers: now “our cinemas themselves sometimes show pirated versions,” he said, and “let them steal if they want.”

But Ms. Manilova explained that the bill does not protect unfriendly rights holders, but “civilized domestic cinema owners who today support national cinema and the distribution of domestic films, but lose a lot of money from pirated filming.” With regard to compulsory licensing, the topic is “discussed very seriously” in the government, she said.

No one voted against the bill.