Russia May Be Changing Laws to Legalise Software Piracy!

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine late last month, in terms of the tech world the news has been pretty much dominated with companies effectively announcing that they were either suspending support or hardware supplies to the country until, basically, the war comes to a peaceful end. I’d list off the names of those who have thrown their weight behind this movement, but at this point, it would probably be easier to name those who haven’t yet declared any kind of position on the subject.

Putting all this together, therefore, it seems pretty clear that the technological and economical pressures being put on Russia are clearly having an effect. – Following a report via Eurogamer, however, in regards to one of these issues, it would appear that their government is potentially set to come up with a rather interesting solution (in the Chinese sense – and ironically in more than one highly coincidental way).

Namely, sources are claiming that the Russian government is basically set to legalise software piracy!

Russia to Legalise Software Piracy?!

With companies such as Microsoft, Samsung, Apple, Sony and Adobe having all confirmed their withdrawal of support or supplies to Russia, it would appear that in order to get around some of the potential disruptions this may have, the government there is currently considering, and is seemingly set to implement, new laws that will effectively remove any current software piracy laws. Well, specifically laws for software that’s produced outside of Russia I would imagine.

Will this have any major effect though?… Well, in a nutshell, I don’t think it unfair to say that Russia already has a pretty well-established reputation when it comes to both hacking and piracy. Although I am neither confirming nor denying that I have ever looked to obtain such software, I have it on exceptionally good authority that many of these illegitimate programs that float around on torrenting websites often come from Russian sources! – Put simply, it already happens, and if the government there did decide to make it legal, it would probably just open the floodgates for a new golden era of online piracy. – Given how often these programs can come with something added that you didn’t want though (hidden malware for example), this could potentially backfire if businesses who were reliant on such official software programs have to start turning towards less than legitimate means!

From my perspective though, Russia legalising software piracy probably won’t make an overly big difference in the grand scheme of things. Why? Because I’m pretty sure they’ve already been doing it for years anyway! – What do you think though? – Let us know in the comments!