Russia: Intellectual Property Rights as NGO Prosecution Tool?

Posted 19 September 2010 20:08 GMT

Countries	Russia
Topics	Freedom of Speech, Environment, Governance, Human Rights, Law, Technology
Languages	Russian, English
Special	RuNet Echo

This post is part of RuNet Echo, a Global Voices project to interpret the Russian language internet. All Posts · Learn more

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Español	· Rusia: ¿Derechos de propiedad intelectual como herramienta de acción legal contra ONGs?
Français	· Russie : La propriété intellectuelle, un outil anti-ONG ?

Russia

Rebecca MacKinnon calls for revising software copyright policy following the story in Irkutsk, where local authorities used the excuse of struggling against illegal software to confiscate local NGO's computers. Irkutsk case represents a wider problem of using intellectual property protection as a justification for prosecution of human rights activists all over the world which might increase after ratification of the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).

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