Russia’s largest social network, VKontakte – also known as VK.com – has appealed a court order to reimburse lost profits from a pop singer’s songs hosted on its website. This is one of many scandals involving VKontakte, which the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has accused of being one of the most important players in the audio piracy …
The Russian government is making headway in persuading some of the world’s leading Internet players to block content that it has labeled as illegal. Roskomnadzor, a federal agency that oversees telecoms, IT, and mass communications, announced last Friday that it has come to an understanding on the matter with Twitter. In the first three weeks of …
Twitter acquiesces to Russia’s content-blocking while Google battles it in court Read More
Last year, East-West Digital News reported on a Moscow discount site’s client database that had been leaked to crooks for $6,700. Several new cases were brought to our attention recently, suggesting there is a growing black market of client database information in Russia. Various kinds of websites are concerned, from small ones to some well-established …
Client database trafficking develops in Moscow, established e-commerce sites under threat Read More
After being exposed recently to public criticism stemming from the Russian government – including President Putin himself – the Skolkovo Foundation is now targeted by an inquiry of the Investigative Committee of Russia’s Prosecutor Office. The investigation was triggered by a recent report by Russia’s Accounts Chamber revealing several cases of questionable financial practices by …
Top Skolkovo executives threatened by criminal investigation Read More
In a bid to spruce up its ever-growing project portfolio, the Skolkovo Foundation has leaked to the press its plans to weed out ‘bad’ residents. In an exchange with the Russian business daily Vedomosti, Alexei Beltyukov, Skolkovo’s senior vice president for development and commercialization, said that the Foundation, which runs the state-sponsored Skolkovo innovation hub …
Skolkovo to scrutinize its resident companies and remove tricksters Read More
Last month the Russian police confiscated 103 packaged bales full of fake Apple and Samsung phones; they estimate 10 million rubles ($310,000+) and 179 million rubles ($5.6 million), respectively, in damages for the trademark holders. As many as 8,400 handsets “with unmistakable signs of falsification,” stacked on a train that ran from Vladivostok, in Russia’s …
Phony “New Year godsend” under Apple and Samsung guise seized in Moscow Read More
An estimated forty-three percent of Russian employees use unlicensed copies of software at work, copies that in a majority of cases were installed by their employers, revealed a survey conducted by Russian online job site HH.ru earlier this month. Employers’ greed is the main culprit, according to the respondents, who suffer from a range of …
Unlicensed software still widespread in Russian companies, but repression intensifies Read More
A Moscow court on Monday condemned the film “Innocence of Muslims” as “extremist” – citing a 2002 law regulating public expression – and has forbidden its dissemination on the territory of the Russian Federation. The court’s decision, which has not yet been announced officially, was revealed on Tuesday by Minister of Communications and Mass Media …
‘Innocence of Muslims’ banned in Russia; YouTube under judicial threat Read More
Last month, the Russian Supreme Court of Arbitration issued a ruling that dashed any hopes the Bestwatch.ru online retailer had for a favorable settlement with Longines Watch, a renowned Swiss watchmaker. Following the withholding of its petition to suspend an earlier legal resolution, the Russian online store will have to pay 3 million rubles, or …
Online retailer found guilty of trademark infringement in ‘gray import’ scheme Read More
On Monday, the Tashkent City Court in Uzbekistan handed down a decision ordering the forfeiture of assets held by a local mobile service operator in a controversial ruling that may cause the operator’s owner, Russia’s MTS, to charge off a loss of up to $1 billion, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported. The Court’s …
MTS assets seized in Uzbekistan; mobile operator envisions $1 billion loss Read More
The US firm Information Protection and Authentication of Texas (IPAT) has lost its suit for patent violation in an American court against Kaspersky Lab, a Moscow-based publisher of Internet security solutions. In December 2008 IPAT filed a lawsuit in the Eastern District Court of Texas against a group of IT companies – including McAfee, Microsoft, …
Kaspersky Lab wins lawsuit against US patent troll Read More
Gala Records, Russia’s first private music record label, has withdrawn six legal claims it earlier advanced against Mail.ru Group for alleged rights infringement and instead inked a license agreement with the leading Russian Internet company, the Russian business daily Vedomosti reported on Monday, citing direct exchanges with the two companies’ spokespersons. Under the terms of …
