As Russia tries to find a balanced solution to the thorny issue of Internet piracy, the head of a government department responsible for communications and information technology says that attacking Internet users is not the solution. Speaking at the launch of a nationwide campaign to promote legal eBook purchases, Vladimir Grigoryev said that the government has no intention of holding downloaders liable or having them sent to court.

» via TorrentFreak

The Russian government in recent weeks has been making use of a new law that gives it the power to block Internet content that it deems illegal or harmful to children.

The country’s communications regulators have required Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to remove material that the officials determined was objectionable, with only YouTube, owned by Google, resisting. The video-sharing site complied with a Russian agency’s order to block a video that officials said promoted suicide. But YouTube filed a lawsuit in Russian court in February saying the video, showing how to make a fake wound with makeup materials and a razor blade, was intended for entertainment and should not be restricted.

Supporters of the law, which took effect in November, say it is a narrowly focused way of controlling child pornography and content that promotes drug use and suicide.

But opposition leaders have railed against the law as a crack in the doorway to broader Internet censorship. They say they worry that social networks, which have been used to arrange protests against President Vladimir V. Putin, will be stifled.

» via The New York Times (Subscription may be required for some content)

The United States and Russia have established an agreement to work together to fight intellectual property violations. As specified in the Intellectual Rights Protection Action Plan, Russia has agreed to shut down infringing websites, and pump more money into law enforcement, including physical raids to destroy infringing pirated content — methods of enforcement that are already present in the United States. The agreement also states that Russia will establish a law that will determine ISP liability in cases involving infringement (though it’s not clear what kind of “safe harbor” provisions, if any, will be given to Russia’s ISPs).

» via The Verge

Russia’s parliament has voted to approve a law that would give the government the power to force certain internet sites offline without a trial.

Supporters of the amendment to the Act for Information say it will help the authorities block sites containing images of child abuse and other illegal material.

But opponents have warned that censorship could later be extended.

The bill still needs to be signed by President Vladimir Putin to become law.

» via BBC

The Russian version of Wikipedia has shut down for 24 hours in protest at a law that would give the government powers to blacklist certain sites.

Visitors to the site see a black line across the site’s logo and a message explaining the move.

The government says it wants greater powers to block sites that show child pornography, promote teenage suicide, and spread information about drugs.

But Wikipedia likens the proposed law to the Great Firewall of China.

» via BBC

The cyber crime department of Russia’s Interior Ministry says it intends to get tough on the country’s ISPs when their customers share copyrighted or otherwise illegal material. Authorities say they are currently carrying out nationwide checks on ISPs’ local networks and could bring prosecutions as early as next month.

» via TorrentFreak

The Air Force Special Operations Command canceled its planned acquisition of Apple iPad tablet computers last week, two days after receiving a query from Nextgov about the inclusion of Russian-developed security and documents reader software specified in procurement documents.

The command did not provide any explanation for the move in its notice on the Federal Business Opportunities website. Officials originally planned to acquire 2,861 iPad2 tablet computers to serve as electronic flight bags, storing digital versions of paper charts and technical manuals. The procurement — kicked off in January — specified the use of GoodReader software developed in Russia to meet mission security requirements.

Michael McCarthy, director of the Army’s smartphone project, Connecting Soldiers to Digital Applications, based in Fort Bliss, Texas, told Nextgov last week he would not use software developed in Russia because he would not want to expose end users to potential risk.

» via Nextgov

A former senior Russian archive official says he saw a file that could shed light on Holocaust hero Raoul Wallenberg’s fate — challenging the insistence of Russia’s KGB successor agency that it has no documents regarding the man who saved tens of thousands of Jews in Hungary before disappearing into the hands of Soviet secret police.

Anatoly Prokopenko, 78, told The Associated Press that in 1991 he saw a thick dossier containing numerous references to Wallenberg that suggested he was being spied upon by a Russian aristocrat working for Soviet intelligence. Russian officials later said the file didn’t exist, in line with blanket denials of having information on Wallenberg.

“That file is extremely interesting, because it could allow us to determine the reasons behind his arrest,” Prokopenko said, while acknowledging he had only a few minutes to flip through hundreds of pages of documents.

» via Yahoo! News

Four months after dismantling the nasty Kelihos botnet, Microsoft says it has tracked down the central figure behind it– naming Russian citizen Andrey N. Sabelnikov as a new defendant in its civil case over the botnet.

Microsoft announced the news in a blog post. The company alleges that Sabelnikov wrote the code for the Kelihos malware and was responsible for the operation of the botnet, which did everything from distributing spam to stealing financial information and orchestrating stock scams.

Here’s the kicker: Prior to his current employment as a freelancer for a software development and consulting firm, Sabelnikov ”worked as a software engineer and project manager at a company that provided firewall, antivirus and security software,” according to Microsoft’s newly amended lawsuit.

» via GeekWire