Download without the right: pirates robbed Russian cinema of almost 2 billion

The damage to the film industry from Internet pirates in 2025 amounted to almost 2 billion rubles. According to the RCIS (the Russian Center for the Turnover of Rights to the results of Creative Activity), the market of illegal film production in the Russian Federation has grown significantly in the first half of 2025. Domestic film producers lose up to 500 million rubles on piracy of a major blockbuster. Online cinemas have confirmed the damage caused by piracy and talked about the ways they have adopted to combat fraud.

The spool is not small

According to preliminary estimates, in the first half of 2025, the damage caused by Internet piracy to the Russian film industry amounted to about 1.6-1.7 billion rubles, which is more than half of the turnover of the pirate market in 2024 (about 3 billion rubles), which indicates a significant scale of illegal distribution of video content. The number of new pirated links in the first six months of 2025 increased by 30-35% compared to the same period in 2024, demonstrating that, despite the blockages, pirate resources continue to expand their presence by creating new sites using automatic mirrors, CDNs and bypassing filters, Izvestia learned.

— In 2024, 12.5 million units of pirated content were blocked, which is 42% more than in 2023. Growth continues in 2025. As a result, even with the improvement of law enforcement practices and a decrease in the profitability of pirated sites, the threat level remains the same, and the losses for the film industry are significant," said Andrey Krichevsky, chairman of the All—Russian public and State Organization Russian Center for the Turnover of Rights to Creative Results.

According to the expert, this is a shadow market with an established financial model, which involves illegal casinos, bookmakers and advertising networks. In addition, 39% of pirate sites are considered unsafe — they spread viruses or are blacklisted by antivirus services. In other words, it's not just about protecting the rights of copyright holders, but also about digital hygiene in general.

— We predict a further increase in the volume of illegal distribution, despite all counteraction measures. Withdrawal from the market of international streaming platforms, limited access to foreign novelties and high demand from the audience create favorable conditions for pirates. Moreover, technical solutions for creating "mirrors" of websites and automating content distribution are becoming more accessible. According to our data, the volume of blocked content has been growing for the second year in a row, and this trend is likely to continue," Andrei Krichevsky summed up.

The trend is confirmed by the content director of the online cinema Wink.ru Alexander Kosarim. According to him, 1,994,650 links with illegal content were blocked in 2023. And in 2024, 3,183,457 links were blocked, deleted and removed from the search results. Therefore, Wink has been cooperating with companies that provide content protection services for a long time. Such organizations use specialized software that makes it easier to detect violations and take subsequent action.

— Specialized software finds content and checks it, screening out legitimate players and false alarms. Such software also provides an opportunity to file a complaint in an automated or manual mode. In addition, specialized companies file complaints with the RCN to block websites. Automatically, after violations are detected, our contractors send complaints to site administrators and Internet service providers," said Alexander Kosarim.

How the industry reacts

According to industry research, up to 90% of illegal video content is distributed through pirate balancers — these are large infrastructure players who store and deliver video content, as well as provide webmasters with convenient players and APIs for quickly creating pirate sites, Izvestia learned. In addition, 110,000 pirate sites, including mirrors, were blocked in 2024. This is 37.5% more than a year earlier.

According to Stepan Samoylenko, head of Okko's Anti-piracy department, Okko protects its content by monitoring and promptly blocking illegal broadcasts and pirated resources. The service's specialists regularly monitor social networks, specialized pirate resources, application stores, IPTV, marketplaces and other online platforms for illegal content.

— We also use a number of machine algorithms that constantly work to find pirated copies and then block them. These solutions include developments by our partners, Anti—Piracy, and digital fingerprints from Reiters. Anti-Piracy efficiently monitors the Internet for illegal broadcasts, ensuring that complaints are automatically sent and links are excluded from search engines. The Ryters solution allows Okko to effectively combat content piracy through advanced digital fingerprint and tag technologies," the expert said.

Kirill Ostroukhov, Director of Integrated security at the KION online cinema, noted that the online cinema works with Russian companies specializing in monitoring and suppressing violations of exclusive rights to content on the Internet. We are satisfied with the cooperation in the company. Firstly, there is a positive economic effect, and secondly, outsourcing saves internal resources. It would be incorrect to say that as a result of the work of our partners, losses from piracy tend to zero. But this activity makes it possible to significantly reduce the amount of damage caused by the actions of pirates.

Andrey Krichevsky from the RCIS agrees with this, believing that in the current reality it is important to strengthen interagency cooperation and block precisely the technical cores of the pirated infrastructure, such as CDN and video balances. The editorial board also sent a request to the Russian Copyright Society (RAO). RCIS acts as the operator of the RCIS blockchain network.The Russian Federation, the main node of which is RW. There, Izvestia was recommended to use the RCIS data.

The real damage is even greater

Estimates of the damage caused by online piracy are far from being made public by all market players. Experts' data may vary depending on the calculation method. The potential volume of compensation for copyright violations in Russia can reach 100 billion rubles a year, according to Kirill Knaub, CEO of the copyright protection platform Copydefend. This assessment includes all objects of copyright — not only films, but also photographs, illustrations, texts, amateur videos and other works.

If additional measures are not taken to protect copyrights (expansion of law enforcement practice, support for creators, creation of digital registries), the number of violations will grow in proportion to the growth of authors. Kirill Knaub predicts that by 2030 there may be 5-6 million professional creators in Russia; with an average of 1.8 violations per person, this will result in up to 11 million violations annually.

"If the current dynamics continue (42% of cases go to court), the potential amount of compensation for copyright violations may amount to 150-160 billion rubles annually, and in this case the budget will not receive 9-10 billion rubles in taxes," Knaub notes. "Inaction will worsen the consequences for both authors and the state, including indirect costs — a decrease in interest in the profession and the outflow of specialists.

Alexander Zhuravlev, Chairman of the Commission on Legal support for the digital economy of the Moscow Branch of the Russian Bar Association, emphasizes that the illegal use of creative content is a systemic problem that negatively affects authors, the budget, the legal digital sector and investments in the industry. The situation is particularly acute on marketplaces, where counterfeit goods are massively sold, and platforms act as a "gray area" with fragmented law enforcement.

"The 2013 anti—piracy law (expanded later) allows you to block resources, but its effect is limited to audio-visual content and torrent trackers, not e-commerce; blocking tools are more "fire—fighting" than system—building," says Zhuravlev. — The increase in fees for lawsuits (for small businesses and freelancers, it is disproportionate to compensation) discourages the protection of rights. A multi-level solution is required to balance the freedom of e—commerce and the protection of intellectual property rights — this is the foundation of a mature digital economy," he said.

A joint study by Copydefend, Bang Bang Education and XYZ (available to Izvestia) proves that the problem can only be solved by a systematic approach, primarily digital protection tools, legal literacy and a culture of respect for other people's work.