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Majors test new Russian law to take down unlicensed music apps

By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 8 October 2020

The major labels are testing a new anti-piracy law in Russia by seeking to have Apple remove three unlicensed music apps from its App Store: PewPee, iMus and Музыка оффлайн Скачать Музыку, the latter of which pretty much translates as Offline Music Download Music.

Russia has introduced a number of new anti-piracy measures in recent years, often increasing the power of internet watchdog Roscomnadzor, and going further than similar measures in Western Europe and North America.

The latest such measure increases the liabilities of app stores, like those operated by Apple and Google. When formally made aware of copyright infringing apps they must quickly order those app-makers to stop infringing and/or remove those apps from their stores. Failure to do could result in web-blocking action by Roscomnadzor.

According to Torrentfreak, the major labels’ representatives in Russia are testing the new law by requesting an injunction that orders Apple to remove the three offending apps that they have identified.

A legal rep for the labels said that the move is very much a test case and, depending on how things work out, other copyright owners are ready to push for the removal of other apps, targeting Google’s App Store as well.

Torrentfreak also notes that Roscomnadzor has asked both Apple and Google to identify who in their organisations will take responsibility for speedily removing copyright infringing apps when any injunctions are issued.

We await to see what happens with PewPee, iMus and Offline Music Download Music, and whether a flood of other app removal requests then follow.