Russia could be planning to legalize piracy in the face of sanctions against the country for its invasion of Ukraine.
The state-backed publication Kommersant reports that the authorities could abolish the criminal and administrative responsibility "of the countries that supported the sanctions" against Russia.
Apple, Google, Microsoft, Goal (owner of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), and Samsung, among others, have placed limits on their technology at the behest of the US and Ukrainian governments.
YouTube has removed RT, Sputnik and other news channels from its platform, while Meta is also restrict their access on Facebook and Instagram. In response, Russia is limiting access to Facebook but not the more popular Instagram for citizens.
Kommersant reported on Friday that there may be a mechanism for the granting of compulsory licenses for the manufacture of software, databases and circuits.
However, many large service providers do this through a subscription to a cloud product and as such many may not work if they have been hacked.
"In terms of exemption from liability for the use of unlicensed software, we advocate a balanced approach to stimulate the transition to Russian software," the Russian Statistics Ministry said.
Last week, Russian politician Dmitry Ionin suggested that the country's largest torrent site, RuTracker, could be unblocked to allow citizens to watch Hollywood movies.
It comes after Warner Bros, sony images, The Walt Disney Company and Paramount Pictures announced that they are pause the next release of films in Russia in response to the "humanitarian crisis".
Digital Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has even called on Sony and Microsoft to remove Xbox and PlayStation support from Russian citizens to show that “support human values”.
One Internet provider has reportedly already withdrawn its service for Russian customers.
Cogent Communications, a US-based company, said "economic sanctions" and "the increasingly uncertain security situation" meant they could no longer serve customers, supposedly include the state-backed telecommunications giant Rostelecom, the Russian search engine Yandex, and two of the Russian operators MegaFon and VEON.
the independent has contacted the Kremlin for more information.
