Russia’s Gazprom-Media initiated the blocking and removal of more than 7 million links to illegally placed copies of its content on the internet in 2022.
This, according to the holding, was 67% more than in 2021 (4.2 million). It included 4.6 million links from Yandex search results (2.6 million in 2021) and 2.8 million from Google search results (0.9 million in 2021).
During the year, the holding initiated 854 lawsuits. Some of them included claims for property compensation for copyright infringement, and court decisions were received on them for the payment of R8.7 million. This was 30% more than the total for the previous four years.
Gazprom-Media notes that Telegram has ceased to be the fastest growing platform for the illegal distribution of its video content. During the year, through the administration of the messenger, the holding initiated the blocking of about 7,500 small channels that violate copyright. Their audience turned out to be in orders of magnitude smaller than in 2021, when the number of subscribers to such channels fluctuated at around 100,000. Gazprom-Media adds that it searches for violators using its own Copyright Protection IT system. It is improved every year to meet the growing technological equipment of pirates. This approach gives it the advantage of effectively and quickly combating the unauthorised distribution of its content online.
According to Pavel Rusakov, head of the department for ensuring the protection of intellectual property at Gazprom-Media, “Gazprom-Media Holding is one of the country’s largest video content rights holders, and every pirated link takes money out of the holding’s pocket. Last year, the situation with piracy escalated, so we optimized our work: we began to spend more resources on protection within the framework of the anti-piracy memorandum and interaction with Roskomnadzor, strengthened judicial protection and work with bailiffs, and also fought offline piracy in cinemas and bars that broadcasting sports illegally. As a result, we managed to block more than 95% of found links to illegal copies of our content and multiply the amount of monetary compensation that we return to the holders of the holding – mainly TNT and Match TV”.
