New round of fighting Rutraker and pirated resources

On January 22 of this year, the resolution on the permanent blocking of Rutreker on the territory of the Russian Federation came into effect. This was preceded by a long information campaign, on both sides: some of them forced the situation, others conducted “civil defense” exercises and tested the means of detour. Some prophesied the imminent demise of the resource, the latter claimed that he would only “scratch the paint”. Only 1.5 months have passed since the start of the blocking, and during this time several interesting events have occurred that allow us to sum up the first results and make some assumptions about the future fate of Rutreker.

Not so bad as hell baby

By the time of blocking, about 15 million users had been registered on Rutraker. It is difficult to say how many of them were active, but the offensive of the right holders clearly became a kind of advertisement, attracted attention to the resource and increased traffic. As is known, advertising brings the main income to Rutreker, therefore attendance is vital for him. Calculation of rights holders was based on the fact that after the introduction of blocking a significant decline in traffic will lead to an outflow of advertisers, and the resource will become unprofitable. The media even called specific indicators, estimated profit and future losses.

At the same time, Rutreker’s advocates argued that things were not so bad, and the blocking would not significantly affect traffic, and, consequently, the well-being of the resource. It must be said that Rutreker himself did not sit idly by, but actively spread the straw on himself, actively promoting the means of blocking, conducting “exercises” and generally promoting in every way the idea that the blocking would almost do him good, as he would release him from rights holders. On the main page there was a link to the branch, where various plug-ins, proxies and other amulets were actively discussed. According to the results of the "training alert" Rutreker reported on full readiness for work and defense. Everyone was looking forward to the introduction of the lock.
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Probably, when day X came, Rutreker first experienced a decline in traffic, and then a surge. After all, it was necessary for users to check whether their workarounds are valid. But since the real traffic is Rutreker’s trade secret, because on the basis of this data it attracts advertisers, it’s unlikely we will know the real state of affairs.

Three weeks have passed since the start of the blocking, the story began to be forgotten. Who knew how to bypass the lock, continued to use the resource, who did not know how - stopped. But judging by the relative silence in social networks, there were not many. Suddenly, the news feeds shook the news that Dmitry Medvedev, without any tricks, quietly walked from his tablet to Rutreker . The general public greeted the news sarcastically.



The incident was annoying not only for the owners, but also for a number of officials. It turned out that the peculiarities of legislation and regulation allow in some cases to ignore the blocking regulations of Roskomnadzor. What, in fact, use some providers. In other words, part of Rutreker’s audience didn’t notice anything at all.

Patching holes

From the very beginning, the owners of Rutreker refused to create mirrors of their resource. But on the other hand, many other pirate sites, which were once blocked by Roskomnadzor, are actively involved in this. Nothing can be done about these mirrors, since a separate court decision is required to block each of them. Moreover, there is already a precedent when the court refused to do this. And you can raise a new mirror very quickly and relatively cheaply, as you understand.

Among other things, even if the resource is blocked, users can find it in search results. Separate discontent causes relentless advertising of circumvention means, which reduces the proportion of those who, because of their inability, would give up on Rutreker or any other pirate site.

To tolerate this state of affairs was impossible. The rightholders became more active and began searching for solutions. As a result, together with Roskomnadzor, a bill was drafted , designed to patch holes in the law and complicate the lives of pirates.

The draft law proposes to introduce the official wording of the “derived site” - the mirror. And to block it, you can quickly get a court order, not venturing endless litigation.

"Derived website on the Internet - having a similar name and display of a website on the Internet, created as a result of moving, full or partial copying of information of another website on the Internet, their automatic synchronization, translation of such information from one language to another language and (or) providing users with access to services and information provided on another site through a common management system. ”

True, the law does not state who should be held responsible for recognizing any site as a mirror of a blocked resource.

As for search engines, they are planning to legally force them to clear the results of issuing from sites containing pirated content, including mirrors. By the way, the representative of “Yandex” Marina Yanina at the end of December, argued that pirated resources are much more efficient in promoting themselves in search results. Competition is binding.

Do not forget in the bill and unscrupulous providers who are not in a hurry to implement locks on notifications from Roskomnadzor. For this they are offered to fine:

• officials in the amount of 3 thousand to 5 thousand rubles.,
• individual entrepreneurs - from 10 thousand to 30 thousand rubles,
• legal entities - from 50 thousand to 100 thousand rubles.

Advertising means to circumvent the blocking is proposed to be outlawed. Here they plan to restore order also with the help of a financial whip, that is, fines. The amounts are the same as when not fulfilling the requirements of Roskomnadzor. At the same time, the authors of the bill do not propose to prohibit the use of plug-ins for browsers, only their advertising.

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It is difficult to say what are the chances for this bill to be adopted. Right holders traditionally have a strong lobby in the legislature, so we can expect further crackdown. Ironically, it is the favorable situation that has arisen after the introduction of the blockage can lead to new problems for Rutreker. It is very difficult to predict how fast blocking of mirrors, clearing search results and advertising censoring will affect its traffic. Not everyone knows how to use circumvention tools - and they know about their existence - and in the conditions of lack of information, many will simply be too lazy to do this. On the other hand, advertising can also be formulated so that it does not fall under the legislative limitation. In any case, the standoff of the projectile and armor continues, and the right holders have already prepared blueprints for a larger caliber.