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Russia's largest publisher has filed copyright infringement lawsuits against Telegram for allowing pirated copies of Stephen King and Dmitry Glukhovsky's books to be distributed through the platform. The cited goal is to block Telegram in Russia, but according to the anti-piracy group involved in the action, the introduction of fingerprint technology is preferred.
With more than 500 million monthly active users, the Telegram messaging platform is a true Internet giant. According to co-founder Pavel Durov, it was the world's most downloaded app in January 2021 and is supported by a user base that has grown 40% every year since its launch in 2013.
Along with millions of regular users, some also use Telegram as a way to access pirated content. As a result, the company has been criticized by the RIAA and MPAA, made an appearance in the 'piracy watch list', and has been told that block pirated content or even face blocking.
Lawsuits target Telegram for facilitating book piracy
As the largest publisher in Russia, Eksmo-AST is well known for its anti-piracy work, including its participation in the permanent ISP block posted on the giant torrent site RuTracker. The company has also addressed Youtube and Google, the latter for allegedly hosting hacking apps. Now he has Telegram in his sights.
On July 20, publishers AST and Eksmo, both part of the Eksmo-AST group, filed a pair of lawsuits against Telegram alleging that the messaging platform did not remove the infringing content.
According to Kommersant, which recently uncovered the complaints, the Moscow City Court was pleased to issue a preliminary injunction, meaning that books including 11/22/63 by Stephen King and Dmitry Glukhovsky's Metro 2033 may be blocked by consumer ISPs under the orders of the telecommunications control body. Roscomnadzor.
The AZAPI Anti-Piracy Group represents Eksmo-AST
AZAPI's Maxim Ryabyko says that Telegram has been removing content in response to publisher complaints since 2019, including 52,000 pirated books and 31 channels available on Telegram's web version. The company has also blocked 346 channels on its iOS app according to Kommersant, in addition to 69 channels on the Google Play version.
Despite these efforts, AZAPI says that not all complaints receive a positive response from Telegram, so Eksmo-AST hopes their demands will push the company to act. The goal is to reach a "critical mass" of court decisions against Telegram so that it does not comply with Russia's repeat offender laws. This could mean that Telegram is completely blocked by the country's ISPs.
Interestingly, the lockdown is not the primary target of Eksmo-AST / AZAPI's legal action. Instead, it is expected that, like vKontakte (Russia's Facebook equivalent), Telegram will install fingerprint technology that will allow publishers to automatically remove infringing content. Telegram was previously asked to implement such a system, but that proposal never took off.
Can Telegram be blocked?
In 2018, Telegram was famous pointed for not handing over the encryption keys to the authorities, but the blocking measures failed to bring down the platform. That raises the question of whether the platform could crash now, should it refuse to comply with Eksmo-AST / AZAPI's wishes.
Russia recently hinted that it has the ability to restrict access to content that it deems illegal or offensive on problematic services. "A lot has changed since the history of Telegram," said Alexander Khinshtein, chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technology and Communications.
Since it appears that Telegram is primarily complying with Eksmo-AST / AZAPI's takedown demands, a compromise can still be reached. It is currently unknown if that will result in the implementation of a fingerprint system, but it is clear that rights holders want access to more powerful tools.
