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Photo: JOURNAL / Vladimir Zykov

Today, the right holders for the first time filed a lawsuit against Vkontakte in the Moscow City Court, Izvestia writes . In general, it is even strange that right now the right holders have decided to go to court - after all, there is a lot of content in the social network, which is commonly called “pirated”. The lawsuit was filed by the Internet Copyright Association (AZAPI). The reason is the violation of the rights to the social network on Zakhar Prilepin's book "Resident"

“There are publics and the“ My Documents ”section that we clean, and VKontakte reports [about deleted files] on our claim. But in one of the cases, we found that the content is in place. It turns out that “VKontakte” is not taking proper measures for protection, ”said AZAPI general director Maxim Ryabyko.

Previously, almost all the problems regarding copyright content holders resolved through the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg. The problem of these processes is their duration; a single process can last about a year.
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“We have a large history of relationships with VKontakte, including negative experiences. We decided to apply to the Moscow City Court to take action, since filing a lawsuit with the Arbitration Court of St. Petersburg is long and costly, and the procedure is not entirely clear for us, ”commented Maxim Ryabyko.


AZAPI says the book was never removed

One of the possible reasons that no claims were filed against VK was a secret request from Roskomnadzor. The Office justified the request by saying that the social network is quite loyal to the requests of rights holders. However, the AZAZ general director does not think so: “I know that negotiations are actively being held with the audio industry and film industry, but the authors of the books are not perceived as participants in the negotiation process - those with whom you need to negotiate. They even ignore our official offers of cooperation. Our goal is to encourage VKontakte to interact adequately with the book industry. ”

The most interesting thing in this trial is what AZAPI is seeking . The official comment of the current process organization states the following: “When uploading files, the site should either require the user documents confirming his right to upload content, or, if users guarantee the legality of content placement and consider themselves copyright holders, apply the requirements of the VK administration to copyright holders, thereby putting them in equal conditions. Both the copyright holder (or his representative), requiring the deletion of the work, and the “copyright holder-user” downloading the content are required to provide complete identifying information about themselves in accordance with section 5 of the VK Rules. ”

The article also states that “If the administration wishes to preserve the privacy of the data of its users, then an agreement with an unidentified person cannot ensure the VC administration the status of an information broker. That is why AZAPI appealed to the Moscow City Court. We want the court to oblige the VC administration to restrict content redeployment on their own, without additional claims being sent to the right holders. ”

It is not yet clear how likely the scenario is when the court will oblige the social network to require documents from Vkontakte users when downloading content. But it is impossible to completely discard this opportunity.

By the way, if the right holder wins “Vkontakte” two times in the Moscow City Court on similar issues, then such a right holder has the opportunity to send a request to block the social network in Russia.