More than 150 people have protested in central Moscow against a government crackdown on pirated online content that will begin Aug. 1.
The rally was held near the Ulitsa 1905 Goda metro station on Sunday and went by peacefully, Argumenty i Fakty reported.
President Vladimir Putin signed the intellectual property law on July 2. It will allow the courts to block or delete web pages containing pirated content at the request of copyright holders.
Site owners will be required to remove the content and links to it within 72 hours, or the entire domain will be blocked pending a court hearing.
Speaking at the rally, Pirate Party leader Pavel Rassudov urged protesters to sign a petition against the anti-piracy law on the Russian Public Initiative website.
He also asked people to boycott media corporations by not going to the movies or buying licensed products, Lenta.ru reported.
As part of a nationwide "web strike" planned for Aug. 1, a large number of popular websites will be turned off and internet users will be encouraged to put a black square in place of their avatars.
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