Game News There are countries in which hacking would be legal
Published on 01/10/2023 at 11:45
Incredible but true: In Belarus, it is now possible to pirate foreign content under certain conditions.
Hard to believe and yet… on January 3, Belarus passed a law that we would not imagine seeing land in France. Signed by the President of Belarus himself, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, it grants Belarusians the possibility of downloading and therefore using software, music, films and other types of content (such as video games) “without the consent of the holder. rights” on the condition that such copyrighted materials originate from foreign states “committing unfriendly actions” and that they are “essential to the domestic market”. It is difficult to imagine what may or may not correspond to these last prerequisites.
To hack, you will have to pay the government
The law recalls the legalization of software piracy in Russia, which gives Russians the right to steal all locally unavailable content from the web. Spotted by our colleagues from pcgamer, it would have been established here in particular with the aim of developing “the intellectual and spiritual-moral potential of society”. There is all the same a subtlety to take into account; Internet users who choose to use this pirated content will have to pay a sum which will be transferred to Belarusian bank accounts managed by the patent authority. In other words, to hack, you have to pay the government. The approach is therefore as follows: the pirate must send an official report to the authority, which will then invoice the amount it deems appropriate.
Content rights holders therefore have three years to seek compensation from this government before the government has all the money. If no specific amount is indicated in the press releases, it is specified that the authority in charge of the patents cannot “deduct more than 20%” of the sum collected before paying it back to the real holders, which may discourage them from taking any action. The law will remain in force until December 31, 2024 and could well be renewed as the local government is changing little; note that the current president has been in place since 1994.
