President Dmitry Medvedev has tasked Prime Minister Vladimir Putin with studying the issue of protecting intellectual property on the Internet. A governmental commission is expected to study the issue and table relevant proposals. It will deal with fighting intellectual property-related crime and protecting it legally as well as improving such protection in the Internet.
Dmitry Medvedev was in charge of improving the legislation on intellectual property protection when he was deputy prime minister. In 2006 he introduced a drafted Part IV of the Civil Code, dealing with intellectual property, in the State Duma. The regulations on the Internet were not completed when Dmitry Medvedev signed a decree on July 18, 2008 on advancing the Russian Civil Code and the presidential council on codification and civil legislation improvement developed it into a Strategy, containing provisions for Part IV of the Civil Code on protecting intellectual property on the Internet.
The Presidential Council discussed the issue at its closed meeting on October 7. Among other issues, the Council suggested that "the provider should be liable for uploading intellectual property in the Internet without the copyright holder's consent if the law contains a clear definition of how the property can be used." Similar regulations are in force in many countries. China adopted a law on Internet copyright in 2006 providing for a $12,500 fine for Internet piracy.
Vladimir Putin Calls for Russian Army's Modernisation
The defence industry received the largest level of funding in modern Russian history in 2009, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at a meeting on the industry yesterday in Kolomna, Moscow Region. "In the financial downturn we sufficiently subsidised the defence industry and the financing totalled an unprecedented amount in the country's modern history - 970 billion roubles," the Prime Minister said. He recalled that the state support came in the form of subsidised loan interest rates, direct investment in authorised share capital, which totalled 70 billion roubles, and the government's underwriting of loans for defence industry enterprises. The Prime Minister added that the industry's production grew by 3.8% and explained that this partially resulted from the government's steadily fulfilling its obligations, first of all, in state defence procurement.
Vladimir Putin set the task of increasing the share of modern and cutting edge weapons in the Russian army to 70% to 80% by 2020. "The weapons should be modern and cutting edge rather than simply reliable as a howitzer designed in 1938," he said.
The milestones in achieving the goal are to ensure "smooth operation of the defence industry", as well as "to boost the industry's modernisation, create a strong capacity in research and design activities, substantially improve the equipment's quality and reliability."
"I know that our defence industry can work wonders," the Prime Minister said. "But we need wonders that will boost the country's defence capability and enable production of equipment at reasonable price." The meeting was hosted at the Engineering Design Bureau, one of Russia's leading missile system designers, and dealt with missile artillery weapons. Before the meeting the Prime Minister was shown the Ka-52 helicopter with a laser guidance system, the Khrizantema anti-tank missile, and the T-80 tank with the Arena reactive armour protection system. It is worth mentioning that Dmitry Medvedev also chaired a meeting on the defence industry on October 26 in Reutov, Moscow Region, where the NPO Mashinostroyenia military-industrial corporation is located.
Irina Granik