Producers and distributors of content have called Yandex CEO Arkady Volozh to de-index URLs of web-sites with illegal content, in other words they asked him not to search such web-sites in internet. They have sent him a collective letter signed by representatives from music industry, internet industry, from association of movie and TV producers and media-communication union.
Authors of the letter have stated that the piracy “damages national economy, social and cultural sphere and intervene with realization of creative potential”, it also “disrupts numerous businesses, linked to production and distribution of content”. It is underlined that, according to SimilarWeb, 80% of internet traffic goes to illegal web-resources from search engines. 10 major pirate resource receive 78% of traffic thanks to Yandex, according to SimilarWeb. It seems Google does not play a core role in searching of piracy in internet in Russia anymore, but it will also receive the similar letter.
Authors of the letter “are compelled to state that those funds, which could be reinvested in industry if they were received from legal distribution, flow to illegal distributors, who used all Yandex facilities”. According to the letter Yandex continues to index players from blocked and illegal web-resources. “We call Yandex to use all available means to discover illegal content and to exclude it from indexing and from Yandex’s services”, – stated the letter.
Yandex did not wait with answer. It stands for fair internet, where the quality legal content is available to the user and the right holders make their money thanks to internet. The Yandex abide a law in any country where it is represented. “In Russia the right holders have unexampled opportunities to restrict access to web-sites with illegal content and their mirrors. If Russian search engines would also additionally obliged to filter search queries, it could lead only to abuse from the side of right holders and unfair competition”, – stated press service of Yandex. It takes a time to make users to pay for content.