The bill on compulsory licensing caused a split in the film distribution market

On October 17, the Association of Cinema Owners (AVK) sent a letter to Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin stating that “the majority” of Russian cinema networks support the bill on compulsory licensing, which was opposed by the largest market participants. The Deputy Prime Minister’s representative did not answer Kommersant.

This is about bill Deputy Dmitry Kuznetsov: according to it, Russian companies will be able to obtain licenses through the courts for content from “unfriendly” countries, whose copyright holders refuse to sell directly. Initially, the project covered films, series, books, software, music and other types of rights, but on October 11, the author announced that he would leave only offline rentals in the document. This happened after negative reviews online cinemas and media holdings (see Kommersant of October 11). Vedomosti On October 13, it was reported that the largest cinema chains also opposed the bill: Formula Kino and Cinema Park, Karo and Cinema Star.

It has now emerged that a number of cinema chains and independent regional cinemas are “asking to take into account more than 70% of the film industry and support the further development and adoption of the bill.” In the joint network, Formula Kino and Cinema Park said they still support the “civilized path of development of the Russian film industry.”

“A minority opposes the bill – two or three cinema chains. I suppose their oligarch owners do not want to anger the “white masters” of licensees in the West in order to be able to continue to enjoy life without personal sanctions in Europe or Israel. We must listen to the interests of the Russian economy, entrepreneurs and the population, and not to the desires of the oligarchy,” Dmitry Kuznetsov told Kommersant. He confirmed that he would remove everything from the document except offline distribution, but “leave the door open for other copyright objects as industries realize this need.”

Valeria Lebedeva