Great news to all Russians! it looks like the Government is going to legalize software piracy to help its citizens get around the many tech and gaming bans that were imposed due to sanctions caused by its invasion of Ukraine. Huge companies such as Netflix, Sony and Nintendo have already shut down its services in the country and many more are planning to do the same. This will certainly leave a huge hole in its pool of foreign content from the country and will undoubtedly affect a lot of people who are dependent on it.
The Russian Ministry of Economic Development proposed easing piracy legislation earlier this week to circumvent sanctions.
“The possibility of lifting restrictions on the use of intellectual property contained in certain goods, the supply of which to Russia is limited, is being considered,” said the Ministry. “This will smooth out the impact on the market of breaks in supply chains, as well as the shortage of goods and services that arose due to new sanctions by Western countries.”
It is unclear if Russia was strict in re-enforcing its piracy laws before the sanctions and actually jailed people for it but for sure, if you’re in Russia, there is no better time to be a pirate.