“We, as a digital industry, use various foreign technical solutions for distributing content: iOS and Android platforms, Smart-TV, etc. If Russia introduces such a regime (compulsory license – editor’s note) and services take advantage of this, then simply we will be kicked out of all these ecosystems, because abroad it will rightly be considered an act of piracy. Without the ability to be present or update our applications on modern platforms and devices, we will lose our main advantage over pirates – user friendliness”, Byrdin said.
According to him, most industry participants were also strongly opposed to granting compulsory licenses because the consequences of such a decision could be too severe.
“Copyright is a story of parity, enshrined in international conventions. Our rights are protected there, because we protect your rights here. And if we deprive the exclusive rights of subjects from other countries with a unilateral gesture, then they will do the same to us. And this is a contraction of the domestic content of the market within the borders of the Russian Federation, not even the CIS, because even in the CIS it is no longer Yandex that dominates, but Google, which in this case simply will not accept infringement requests copyright on Russian content. There is no export, there is no cultural exchange. The point is to save a part of the market at the expense of the others,” said the expert.
Read the full interview with Alexey Byrdin in the article “LGBT Propaganda, Netflix and Dangerous Advice: What Is the Future of Online Cinemas?” on RG.ru.
