“Kommersant” learned about the plans of the Ministry of Digital Transformation to forcibly license software

The Ministry of Digital Development is working on a draft law on compulsory licensing of foreign software, the developers of which have suspended their activities in Russia. About it informs Kommersant, citing sources and a letter from Dmitry Nikitin, director of the IT industry development department of the Ministry of Digital Development.

According to the publication’s source, the bill “decriminalizes” the illegal use of foreign software, and will also initiate its compulsory licensing. At the same time, Russian users will be able to transfer funds for working with foreign software to special accounts “on demand” by their right holders.

The Ministry of Digital Development did not comment on this information in any way, however, the head of the department, Maksut Shadayev, at a webinar with the IT industry on December 28, said that “conditions are needed under which business could use foreign software.” “Business is not to blame that the developer left the country and it is impossible to renew licenses. We must create a separate mechanism for bona fide users,” he explained.

According to the CEO of MyOffice Pavel Kalyakin, the “decriminalization” of illegal software use will slow down the development of import substitution in this area. The implementation of this initiative will, “in fact, just wait for the return of copyright holders to the country,” says Vladimir Zakharov, head of Datana. At the same time, the ability to license foreign software will allow the critical IT structure to work without interruption, said Laurent Hakobyan, CEO of iPavlov.

According to the presidential decree dated March 30, 2022, the purchase of foreign software by critical information infrastructure objects is prohibited from March 31 without the consent of the regulator. By 2025, foreign solutions and hardware and software systems should be decommissioned and replaced with Russian ones.