Report Claims Russia Has “Effectively Legalised Piracy” To Overcome Western Sanctions

Russia is seeking to change its piracy laws in an attempt to address the growing problem of foreign companies boycotting the country following its invasion of Ukraine, a new report claims.

Nintendo, Sony, as well as Microsoft all, stopped sales in Russia, while other companies abandoned their products and made donations to humanitarian organizations.

However, according to City AM — which cites the state-backed newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta as the basis for its report — the Russian government has decided to change some of its intellectual property rules so that its people and industry can overcome these boycotts.

The report claims that Russia’s actions “virtually legalized piracy” – new laws allow Russian companies to circumvent copyright laws on media from “unfriendly” countries. These local firms do not have to pay to use the companies’ IP.

The potential changes are not directly related to video games and are more aimed at allowing Russian companies to produce goods that usually come from outside the country, but according to torrent freak, the plans seem to cover software as well.

So what does it all mean? As such, the Russian state will not seek to prosecute anyone who has illegally downloaded or used software owned by a copyright holder located outside of Russia who has decided to withdraw their products from sale. This includes, as we have already established, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, as well as many other firms.

Nintendo has spent a lot of time and money fighting game piracy, the most recent example of which was the prison term for hacker Gary Bowser.

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