After years of problems with local and international rightsholders, leading Russian torrent site RuTracker received a serious blow last month. Following a ruling from the Moscow Court, the site was blocked by local Internet service providers.
Almost immediately the situation became more complex. In response to this aggressive action, RuTracker broke off cooperation with copyright holders who had previously been allowed to remove infringing content from the site.
“Today we put an end to these agreements, as users of the Russian Federation are now blocked from accessing our tracker. Therefore rights holders did not want to continue their cooperation, which allows us to do more and not adhere to it,” the site said in a statement.
Of course, the site still had the blocking to contend with. RuTracker had been coaching its users for months on how any blockade could be bypassed so the eventual lockout was not unexpected. However, while local copyright holders hoped their efforts would fatally damage the site’s visitor numbers, the blockade has been less effective than planned.
Stats obtained by Vedomosti reveal that two days after the blockade was put in place, visitors to RuTracker from Russia were down 33%. However, the numbers of visitors to the site from countries outside the Russian Federation increased significantly, a change consistent with people using proxies and VPNs to access the site. Overall, total visitors to the site fell by just 13%.
While the blockade certainly won’t help the site long-term, copyright holders believe it is actually proving more effective, with their claims centering around a traffic drop of around 30%. Nevertheless, they’re already standing by to deliver another blow.
According to Izvestia, record labels including Sony Music, Universal Music and Warner Music will now investigate ways to neutralize RuTracker’s domain. Leonid Agronov, Director General of the National Federation of Music Industry (NFMI), said his group is consulting with lawyers to decide the best course of action.
“Our lawyers will choose a way to do it that is most convenient. For example, through the courts. We’ll choose where it’s cheaper and faster,” he said.
For their part, RuTracker don’t see an attack on their domain as being successful.
“We see no reason for problems with the RuTracker.org domain, it is registered in accordance with the rules of the registrar and the domain owner information is verified and confirmed,” the site said.
But despite this confidence, efforts to attack site domains are gathering pace. An announcement on the website of the Association for the Protection of Copyright on the Internet (AZAPO) proposes amendments to Russian copyright law which would allow for the pre-trial suspension of domain names.
“AZAPO proposes…that if a site does not show its owner information, or it is not supported by its WHOIS information, rights holders should have the right to require the pre-trial blocking of the whole site, not just the pages on which there are disputed works,” the group said.
While for many Russia might seem far away, it’s certainly a battleground to watch. Initially slow out of the blocks, Russia is now increasingly quick to introduce new and aggressive anti-piracy measures. However, this enthusiasm is matched by site operators and their users who are prepared to do whatever is necessary to retain access to free content.
This battle is far from over.
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Source: TorrentFreak
