New Russian Copyright Protections Boost Netflix-Style Services
Hmmm
Russia is seeking to shed its image as a hub for pirated movies and become the next hot market for legal online video, a boon for local services trying to lure users before competitors such as Netflix (NFLX) Inc. enter the country.
Starting today, a law signed by President Vladimir Putin makes it harder for Russian websites to host illegal copies of movies or TV shows. The national communications regulator will start adding sites with such content onto a list of addresses that Internet-service providers must block.
While Netflix and Hulu LLC operate in a Web-video market worth billions of dollars in the U.S., the market in Russia, with a population topping 140 million, is just emerging. Movie services such as Ivi.ru are betting on a change in the behavior of Russian consumers used to watching pirated content on social-networking sites or through so-called torrent services.
Hide Comments (0)
Editor's Note: As of February 29, 2024, commenting privileges on reason.com posts are limited to Reason Plus subscribers. Past commenters are grandfathered in for a temporary period. Subscribe here to preserve your ability to comment. Your Reason Plus subscription also gives you an ad-free version of reason.com, along with full access to the digital edition and archives of Reason magazine. We request that comments be civil and on-topic. We do not moderate or assume any responsibility for comments, which are owned by the readers who post them. Comments do not represent the views of reason.com or Reason Foundation. We reserve the right to delete any comment and ban commenters for any reason at any time. Comments may only be edited within 5 minutes of posting. Report abuses.
Please
to post commentsMute this user?
Ban this user?
Un-ban this user?
Nuke this user?
Un-nuke this user?
Flag this comment?
Un-flag this comment?