The British Broadcasting Corporation BBC announced that it had revoked licenses for its content from partners in Russia.
“We have stopped licensing content for Russian users,” the company commented on the situation for the media. The copyright holder explained that it is no longer possible to watch BBC series in Russian online cinemas, for example, Miss Marple, War and Peace, Pride and Prejudice. Some series are still available: Doctor Who, The Hollow Crown, The Tudors, Merlin, Killing Eve.
The representative of Kinopoisk said that the information from the BBC is incorrect, since the main popular British series are still available on the platform. The online cinema did not explain the situation about the revocation of the BBC license.
The description of the platform states that the service seeks to renew the licenses of the copyright holder if they expire, but cannot guarantee the return of a particular film or series to the subscription and give the exact time frame when this happens.
“When purchasing a film or series in the catalog, video services sign an agreement with the copyright holder for a certain period. In the current environment, contract renewals take longer, for example, projects from studios such as Warner Bros. and Disney may indeed not be available yet. We are negotiating with partners on this situation and continue to expand the library, ”a Kinopoisk representative told the media.
In 2019, Yandex and BBC Studios (a subsidiary of the BBC) entered into a long-term contract, according to which, from 2020, more than 100 hours of new feature content produced by BBC Studios will appear in the KinoPoisk HD library. The deal package included series, films and more than 150 children's shows and cartoons.
In mid-August, Russian online cinemas and streaming services lost access to some foreign films and series from previous years. Previously, foreign copyright holders did not give permission for the release of new films and series there. For example, in Kinopoisk, Okko, IVI, Wink, Premier, Kion, Amediateka and viju, such content as TV series Friends and Clone, films 1+1, Interstellar, Password became partially unavailable. Swordfish”, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Mask and other cult or popular works, including the Matrix trilogy and its fourth part.
Since March, due to sanctions, copyright holders and content producers Walt Disney, Warner Bros., Sony Pictures, Universal Pictures have stopped selling licenses for their new releases to Russian online cinemas. At that time, domestic platforms stated that the old content libraries were not subject to sanctions and would remain available to users. At the moment the situation has changed. Cinemas have clarified that they do have to remove previously released content from their libraries due to difficulties in renewing existing contracts with studios for some titles.
Earlier in the State Duma, an initiative was submitted for consideration, which provides for compulsory licensing of foreign content. The author of the bill reproached Western media producers for abusing copyright. He believes that the measure will help businesses and fight piracy. The initiators of the bill are confident that some foreign copyright holders have groundlessly revoked their licenses, fulfilling the requirements of foreign governments. Legislators emphasize that copyright abuse is expressed in depriving Russians of access to the cultural values of other countries.
bbabo.Net