From Echo Moskvy:
Users of Russia’s largest social network, VKontakte, have found a way to get around the recent situation in which popular artists tracks have become inaccessible
The songs are being uploaded under different names or renamed so that they are harder to track down.
Popular groups and artists are being given strange names to replace their normal ones. This is how users of the popular social network are trying to hide their favourite songs, so that they are not deleted and removed from their walls where they were posted. For example, the famous British group Coldplay recently have been known on the social network recently as “Cold Games”, AC/DC have become known as the “Cool Rockers”, Metallica are now “Metla”, and Nirvana “Bath World” [Note: in Russian, the two sound vaguely similar]. The American singer Selena Gomez is now Sweet Gnome, and Maroon 5 is now “5 Guys”. The name of the scandalous star Lady Gaga is written as Lada Gaga in [Cyrillic]. Users are anxious about the message that said that soon, songs of the stars that have come out on large labels will soon be removed from VKontakte. For example, U2, Elton John, Metallica, Madonna, Red Hot Chili Peppers and many other artists.
This is as a result of the fact that the Russian branches of famous world labels are planning to strongly enforce the law on the fight against piracy which is currently being examined by the State Duma. The first reading was passed last Friday. Under the law, authors would be able to give ISPs three days notice to correct their mistake or block the portal. It has attracted sharp criticism.
Previously, VKontakte deleted the scandalous film about the prophet Muhammad “Innocence of Muslims” from the site. The owner of the site Pavel Durov did this even before a court order. The social site have also deleted songs from the singer Sergey Lazarev. This occurred after he complained that his songs were freely available.
Comments from Echo Moskvy:
semia:
Is Durov still alive anyway? For example, sometimes, in Belarus people disappear and are never found
wurm:
Musicians should earn their money by going out in front of their audience, as it has been for time immemorial. Their persecution of those who download their records will only cause hatred among former fans.
abc_2011:
Necessity is the mother of invention, it doesn’t even enter people’s heads that you need to pay for someone else’s intellectual property.
wurm: (responding to above)
Exactly. You can send your payment for reading my comment to any orphanage.
abc_2011: (responding to above)
This is legally incorrect, the rules of the site (just like any other site) say that your comment is their property.
voucher:
Bath World ;-))
vladislav:
“The social site have also deleted songs from the singer Sergey Lazarev” And does anyone still listen to him???
dobreedobrogo_0_:
The boy band from the UK are now “Bugs”!
sergeniys_26_12_11:
Without music and films, I’ll gladly swap this KGB branch “VK” for Facebook. We’re just waiting for some suicidal move against Yandex [Note: Russian Google equivalent] now.
aircam:
We’re restoring law and order. That is, the authorities who have stolen, steal now, and will continue to steal, want to forbid these users even this small bit of free pleasure? you need to pay for everything (with honestly earned money), and that’s good, but first, we mustn’t forget the authorities and those in the Duma.
