Nurullaev Ruslan - Legal counsel,Yandex LLC. Address:16, Leo Tolstoy St., Moscow 119021, Russian Federation. E-mail: rusnur@gmail.com.

On 2 July 2013, the Russian legislature adopted the first Russian law which specifically addresses the issue of online copyright enforcement (Anti-piracy Law).
The new Anti-piracy Law introduced three groups of legal mechanisms aimed at preventing online copyright infringements: (1) a website blocking regime, (2) liability of information intermediaries, and (3) safe harbors for information intermediaries.
(1) Under the new website blocking regime, a person who owns the rights to a film can apply to the Moscow City Court for an interim injunction in order to force Internet service providers to remove infringing content or block access to a website, which is allegedly involved in copyright infringing activity.
(2) The Anti-piracy Law introduces the legal term "information intermediary" without providing a clear defini­tion. Instead, the law identifies several types of activity which could make a person an "information interme­diary": transmission of content over the Internet; content hosting; offering access to content made available online; and hosting of information which is necessary to access content online.
(3) Some of these information intermediaries are able to claim safe harbors if they comply with certain requirements.
These mechanisms are similar to copyright enforcement frameworks contained in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and E-Commerce Directive. However, the Anti-piracy Law represents one of the first steps toward Internet copyright enforcement in the Russian Federation.