Belarus law grants government ability to pirate western multimedia, including software...

[Cal Jeffrey]

Why it matters: Belarus has a new law that makes piracy legal — sort of. It applies to all software, movies, music, and television shows owned by rightsholders in "unfriendly nations," which includes the US, UK, and EU member states. The law passed the House of Representatives on December 20, 2022, and the Council of the Republic the following day. "President" Alexander Lukashenko signed the legislation into law last week.

The law passed the Belarus House of Representatives on December 20, 2022, and the Council of the Republic the following day. "President" Alexander Lukashenko signed the legislation into law last week, and it goes into effect this week.

The legislation is a response to sanctions imposed upon Belarus for support of the invasion of Ukraine. Belarusian rulers have declared piracy an acceptable crutch to prop up its economy against crippling embargoes as the country heavily relies on foreign-made media for entertainment and software infrastructure.

TorrentFreak notes that while the law strips IP holders of their copyrights within Belarus, they can still get paid for pirated content eventually — maybe — at a price. The law stipulates that consumers still have to pay for the material. The country's National Patent Authority (NPA) will collect and hold those funds for three years. During that time, rightsholders can claim their money. However, there are several problems with how legislators set up the system.

First, rightsholders will not set the "price" of goods. Costs won't even follow fair market rules and trends. Instead, the government will set prices, but the law is vague about what metrics it will use.

Second, if the IP owner does not claim its money within the three-year timeframe, the government keeps it. It is unclear whether officials will inform rightsholders of held funds. If it does, it might not even matter. Ongoing sanctions prevent Belarusbank in Minsk — the NPA's state-run bank — from doing business with western nations.

Lastly, if IP owners can get to their money, they will have to forfeit up to 20 percent to the government. This fee supposedly covers the "management and accounting expenses" of the NPA and Belarusbank.

Nobody wins in this situation other than the Belarus government. In essence, Lukashenko has not legalized multimedia piracy so much as developed a scheme where consumers pay the government instead of IP owners — government-run piracy. The law expires on December 31, 2024, but there is nothing stopping the country from reinstating it.

Image credits: FBI Warning by Bizmac, Pirated Music by Santeri Viinamäki

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/97214-belarus-law-grants-government-ability-pirate-western-multimedia.html

 

[MisterSpock]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Wouldn't_Steal_a_Car

This makes individual software piracy look almost inconsequential in comparison

 

[psycros]

Belarus just f'd up. Messing with NATO is one thing, angering Hollywood is another. The US government could do something very clever to take advantage of this new development but I won't spoil it for them

 

[Inthenstus]

You should explain why you put president in quotation marks for us who have no clue why.

 

[cosminmcm]

Based!

 

[noel24]

I might be wrong, but I think that even Soviet Union and It's slave states didn't officially engaged in outright IP theft like Russia and Belarus promotes right now (sure, They did It, clandestinely). I think it basically proves that They are in a downward spiral to some "North Korea" of Europe.

 

[dangh]

You should explain why you put president in quotation marks for us who have no clue why.

I think the fact you require explanation is the best reason to not do that, that would be complete waste of time.

 

[m3tavision]

meanwhile....No artist, no musician, no movie studio, etc... will ship, sell or deliver their material to Belarus...

Culturally, they've just become a 3rd world Country...

 

[RudyBob]

Just for that I'm not buying my next car from the Belarusian's or my next potato

 

[Endymio]

I might be wrong, but I think that even Soviet Union and It's slave states didn't officially engaged in outright IP theft like Russia and Belarus promotes right now

We essentially opened the door when we began seizing the property of private citizens without cause. A yacht or a piece of software -- once you start sliding down a slippery slope, it's difficult to stop.

 

[human7]

You should explain why you put president in quotation marks for us who have no clue why.

Agreed. Dictator or not, the title stands, and it is weird for an article not to explain its editorial style in this regard. But then, TechSpot isn't really known for its politics, so it's not surprising for it to be quirky in that regard.

 

[yRaz]

We essentially opened the door when we began seizing the property of private citizens without cause. A yacht or a piece of software -- once you start sliding down a slippery slope, it's difficult to stop.

The Russian Oligarchs are far from "private citizens", but I did want to see how far this rabbit hole went once western nations started seizing assets and property. Belarus is basically nothing of consequence, this is more symbolic than anything. For as poor as they are they were never able to really purchase western software, anyway. The citizens were already either pirating software or using opensource, free alternatives. As an American citizen who can afford software I've been periodically switching over to free, opensource replacements just because I'm tired of how bent over I get by a company I've giving money to.

The interesting part of this article is that the government says we're going to pirate your stuff and, to be perfectly honest, it's pretty sad when a pirated copy of software is easier to use than the paid version. I forget the software, but the US got into some trouble with this because Navy asked a company to remove the DRM from their software and used more copies than their "license" paid for.

Still, I look forward to seeing how steep and slippery this slope gets.

 

[masaaya4]

You should explain why you put president in quotation marks for us who have no clue why.

techspot has gradually boardened their news articals over the years, it is fair to assume that not everyone who is interested in computer technology knows what is happening in Belarus.

if I am not mistaken, Russian leaders have exerted more and more influence and control over neighbouring Belarus to the point where it questioned if the president of Belarus is the complete and unobstructed leader of the country, or if belarus is actually more or less a part of Russian control.

 

[J Oelschl]

meanwhile....No artist, no musician, no movie studio, etc... will ship, sell or deliver their material to Belarus...

Culturally, they've just become a 3rd world Country...

It just may be a blessing in disguise

 

[quadibloc]

It is to be expected that if other countries aren't willing to sell their IP to a given country, for whatever reason, however legitimate, that country will withdraw legal protection from the IP - they won't cooperate in being denied access to the IP. So one can, for example, expect China to ignore patents on EUV lithography.
There is nothing at all surprising here.

 

[Just Some Dude]

I wonder how this will work with App Stores. Doesn’t that money go directly to the vendor (Apple, Microsoft, Google, etc.)

 

[oasked]

Belarus is essentially a puppet state, taking their orders directly from Putin.

It's not really surprising that they're doing what they can to please their masters (and to annoy the 'West'). The effect of this is fairly minimal given the size of their market (and the proportion of people that would have the money to buy this stuff anyway).

This is entirely a symbolic gesture.

 

[Tams80]

It is to be expected that if other countries aren't willing to sell their IP to a given country, for whatever reason, however legitimate, that country will withdraw legal protection from the IP - they won't cooperate in being denied access to the IP. So one can, for example, expect China to ignore patents on EUV lithography.
There is nothing at all surprising here.

Yes, but that would then mean the sanctions on China would become even more severe. They'd be able to use it domestically, but any whiff of it being exported would be acted on.

In this case though, Belarus really has nothing to offer anyone and it's not like they were paying for a lot of their software anyway.

 

[OWM73]

Agreed. Dictator or not, the title stands, and it is weird for an article not to explain its editorial style in this regard. But then, TechSpot isn't really known for its politics, so it's not surprising for it to be quirky in that regard.

Not being known for politics is one of the reasons I visit everyday.

 

[NikoBB]

In the world of the Internet, it is not a problem to access almost any publicly available information if you have brains. But what is surprising is that the modern public is reading books less and less. Thinking is hard and often unpleasant ... much simpler than bread and primitive spectacles. As before the collapse of ancient Rome...

Copying and studying someone else's information is not piracy a priori. Only monetization of someone else's intellectual property. Privately for domestic purposes, piracy cannot be justified in any court of the world. All lawsuits against individuals who did not monetize the received content are a priori illegal and absurd, including the United States. And the judges who sentenced such individuals are state criminals violating the Constitution, where freedom of information is declared. Is it already banned in the US?

As for underdeveloped countries, corrupt (or simply stupid) authorities themselves contribute to the prosperity of Western propaganda in the form of films, shows, games, etc., because. local culture and technology simply cannot provide the population with the same means. But since the kleptocrats of all countries have long united, globalized art no longer poses a real danger in any country, including such as Russia, China. Simply because the means of fooling and zombifying ordinary inhabitants are unified and coordinated. =)

 

[Random Commenter]

I think the fact you require explanation is the best reason to not do that, that would be complete waste of time.

Ah, do you mean like "President" Biden?

 

[NintPlayBox]

I didn't know Belarus had laws... nevertheless a president....oh they mean dictator Russian Vladimir Putin having a puppet in Belarus.

Got it!

 

[PEnnn]

techspot has gradually boardened their news articals over the years, it is fair to assume that not everyone who is interested in computer technology knows what is happening in Belarus.

if I am not mistaken, Russian leaders have exerted more and more influence and control over neighbouring Belarus to the point where it questioned if the president of Belarus is the complete and unobstructed leader of the country, or if belarus is actually more or less a part of Russian control.

It's not really up to TS and its quirky, highly biased moderators to decide who is president or not.

This is the same techie site that will delete your posts or even ban you if your political views and replies don't align with theirs. Ask me (and many others around here) how I know.

Let's see them get triggered by this response....any second now.

 

[masaaya4]

It's not really up to TS and its quirky, highly biased moderators to decide who is president or not.

This is the same techie site that will delete your posts or even ban you if your political views and replies don't align with theirs. Ask me (and many others around here) how I know.

Let's see them get triggered by this response....any second now.

it could be more relevant and at the same time more political than you might think at first.

if we continue the authors train of thought, then it is not so far fetched to imagine that this copyright procedure could be applied to entire Russia if it proves successful, or Russia could be getting software through Belarus after the law is in effect.

but at the same time this brings me back to my first remark: techspot has gradually broadened what is publishes, and now considers things to be tech news - and includes things in articals, that perhaps would not be considered tech news a few years ago.

 

[Endymio]

Belarus is essentially a puppet state, taking their orders directly from Putin.

Belarus is no more a puppet state of Russia than Ukraine is of the US. If it were an actual puppet, Lukashenko would have bowed to the pressure from the Kremlin to enter the war directly. So far he has restrained from so doing, as the move would be politically unpopular on his part.