They may be held liable for copyright infringement in accordance with articles of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation and the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation. The main law concerning copyright is found in Part VII of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
Objects of copyright
By definition, copyright includes rights in works of science, literature and art. The two main categories of violation of rights are plagiarism and piracy.
Plagiarism is the deliberate misappropriation of works of authorship. Unambiguous plagiarism is the publication of an entire work on its own behalf, or the use of parts of it, without attribution. In other cases, plagiarism may be questionable. If the work uses non-unique ideas, it is likely not to fall into the category of plagiarism. Just like a rewrite, the percentage of uniqueness of which is above 90% is not considered a violation, if it does not contain completely new ideas without attribution.
In this case, the decision to assign the status of "plagiarism" to the work is decided by the court, after the analysis of the author's work and the "duplicate" work. However, the absence of fault does not exclude the possibility of suspending the distribution of a product that infringes intellectual property rights, as well as from paying a fine.
Another type of copyright infringement is piracy. Piracy includes the copying and distribution, paid and free, of materials not agreed with the owners: music, movies, games and works of literature.
Penalties for copyright infringement
There are different penalties for copyright infringement. The offender can be punished under the Civil, Administrative or Criminal Codes.
The types of punishments, in accordance with the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, can be found in Articles 1250, 1252, 1253, 1301 and 1311. In the Code of Administrative Offenses, the measures are spelled out in Article 7.12. Article 146 is devoted to this in the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Civil liability includes both minimal measures - recognition of copyright or suppression of actions to spread plagiarism, and more stringent - compensation for damages or payment of compensation, and the seizure and subsequent destruction of the equipment used to distribute it.
Compensation can be in the amount of ten thousand to five million rubles, depending on the court decision, or double the cost of common copies that violate copyright or related rights.
Bringing to administrative or criminal liability does not exclude the possibility of bringing to civil liability.
Administrative liability provides for a fine of 1,500 to 2,000 rubles and the confiscation of counterfeit copies for violation of copyright or related rights in order to obtain income from them.
Criminal charges are brought against the illegal use of works of copyright and related rights committed on an especially large scale.
The types of liability, according to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, may be as follows:
- a fine of up to 200 thousand rubles;
- a fine in the amount of the defendant's income for a maximum of 18 months;
- compulsory work for up to 480 hours;
- forced or corrective labor for up to two years;
- imprisonment for up to two years.
