The Ministry of Justice softens the thresholds of liability for copyright infringement
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The Ministry of Justice has published a bill that proposes to seriously soften the thresholds of liability for crimes committed under articles related to copyright infringement. Officials expect to decriminalize about a quarter of these types of crimes as a result. The latter, experts say, are now mostly related to the rights to Russian software. Lawyers acknowledge the validity of the Justice Ministry’s arguments, but emphasize that the changes, especially taking into account other similar initiatives, will make it much easier for violators to evade responsibility.
“Kommersant” got acquainted with the bill published by the Ministry of Justice on the portal regulation.gov.ru, which amends Art. 146 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of copyright and related rights) and Art. 165 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (causing property damage by deception or abuse of trust). Public discussion of the document will last until October 2.
The Ministry of Justice proposes to change the threshold at which crimes under Art. 146 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are considered committed on a large scale (now punishable by a fine of up to 200 thousand rubles or imprisonment for up to two years), from 100 thousand rubles. up to 500 thousand rubles, and in an especially large amount (fine up to 500 thousand rubles or up to six years in prison) – from 1 million rubles. up to 2 million rubles The Ministry of Justice proposes to raise the thresholds of large and especially large sizes in Art. 165 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation. Large – from 250 thousand rubles. up to 1 million rubles, especially large ones – from 1 million rubles. up to 4 million rubles
In the explanatory note to the document, the Ministry of Justice explains its proposal by accumulated inflation (the thresholds under Article 146 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation were established in 2011, and under Article 165 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – in 2003), as well as the established law enforcement practice for these crimes: 66% of sentences ships from 2020 to 2023 under Art. 146 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation were issued in cases where the thresholds of large and especially large sizes were exceeded. According to the portal “Judicial Statistics of the Russian Federation”, in 2022, under Art. 146, 83 sentences were passed, under Art. 165 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation – 118 sentences.
“Introducing the amendments proposed by the bill to the Criminal Code will allow not only to decriminalize about 26% of the crimes provided for in Art. 146 of the Criminal Code, and 20% of crimes under Art. 165 of the Criminal Code, but also to mitigate liability under the specified norms of the Criminal Code,” says the explanatory note. According to Art. 14.33 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation, if the violations did not bring large or especially large damage to the victim, the violators will bear administrative rather than criminal liability.
The head of the expert center on criminal law policy and the execution of judicial acts of Business Russia, Ekaterina Avdeeva, calls the draft amendments to Art. 146 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is “for the most part relevant and modern,” but at the same time debatable. “The arguments about inflation are convincing, but the question arises whether it is worth increasing the amount of large damage by five times, and especially large ones by only two times,” explains the expert.
According to the director of the Association of Software Product Suppliers (NP PPP Association) Dmitry Sokolov, since 2022, most of the cases initiated under Art. 146 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, concerns violation of copyrights of Russian software developers: “There are practically no cases of foreign software – they are rare for copyright holders who continue to work in Russia.”
The initiative of the Ministry of Justice raises serious concerns among Mr. Sokolov: “If the crime thresholds are raised, the vast majority of violators will escape not only criminal, but also administrative liability.” The problem is, he explains, that administrative practice under Art. 7.12 of the Code of Administrative Offences, there is no one to deal with it. “Civil legal mechanisms do not work, and Russian developers will lose criminal legal protection, which now has nothing to replace it.”
This is not the first bill that, according to market participants, “neutralizes efforts to combat piracy.” The State Duma has already adopted amendments to the Civil Code on intellectual property rights (see Kommersant, June 29). They allow multiple violations of the rights of several copyright holders to be considered as one and a general compensation to be sought.
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