President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has signed a new Federal Law that introduces significant amendments to the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, specifically targeting violations of copyright and related rights. The law increases the thresholds for defining large and especially large damage caused by such violations. The full text of the document can be found on the official Internet portal for legal information.
The key changes in the law are as follows:
- For cases of major damage under Part 2 of Art. 146 of the Criminal Code (related to illegal use of copyright objects and storage of counterfeit items for sales purposes), the threshold for criminal liability has been raised to at least 500 thousand rubles, up from the previous 100 thousand rubles.
- Similarly, for particularly large damage under Part 3 of the same article, the new threshold is set at 2 million rubles, up from 1 million rubles.
Furthermore, amendments are also expected in Art. 165 of the Criminal Code:
- For cases of major damage caused by deception or abuse of trust, criminal liability will now be triggered if the damage exceeds 1 million rubles, compared to the previous threshold of 250 thousand rubles.
- The threshold for particularly large damage under the same article has also been increased to 4 million rubles from 1 million rubles.
It is worth noting that President Putin himself proposed these changes. During the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum of 2023, he directed the Cabinet of Ministers and law enforcement agencies to reevaluate the current thresholds for damage and double them.