Russian Court Orders vKontakte To Stop Infringement, IFPI Says

The London-based International Federation for the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) today announced that a Russian court has ordered popular Russian social network vKontakte to use technology to effectively block infringement of two record companies.

The IFPI press release is reprinted below:

RUSSIAN COURT ORDERS VK TO STOP INFRINGEMENT

Tuesday 29^th September, 2015 – Russian social network vKontakte (VK) has been ordered by a Russian court to use effective technology to prevent infringement of the recordings of two record companies.

The ruling, handed down in the Saint Petersburg & Leningradsky Region Arbitration Court on Monday, is a significant judgment which, when implemented, should improve the environment for developing a thriving licensed music business in Russia.

Universal Music and Warner Music had brought copyright infringement cases against VK in April 2014.  The judge issued an oral decision on 28^th September, and the full judgments will be handed down in due course.

The court granted the record companies’ request to require VK to use effective technology to prevent the upload of their sound recordings to its service, meaning that VK must remove the record companies’ recordings and prevent them from being uploaded again in the future.

IFPI Chief Executive Officer Frances Moore welcomed the judgment: “This is a very important and positive decision for the Russian music market and for music creators in Russia.   VK’s infringing music service has been a huge obstacle to the development of a licensed business in Russia, making available hundreds of thousands of copyright infringing tracks to more than 70 million daily users. Now, the Russian court has ordered VK to use technology to stop infringements.  This is good news for rights holders in Russia.  We now look to VK to implement the court’s decision and stop these ongoing infringements.”