(Source: http://onorino.ru.com)

The Ministry of Culture explained the draft law on “The Tax on the Internet”.

We are not talking about “The Tax on the Internet” in the draft law on a global license on the Web, this was told to “Interfax” on Tuesday, February 24, by the Deputy Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Grigory Ivliev.

According to the official, the agency has begun the development of the law on “global license” at the instruction of the President, and the document is aimed at protection of copyrights. Earlier on Tuesday it was reported that the levy on the internet could be introduced for the Russians in the autumn of 2015.

Last year the Russian Union of Copyright Holders headed by the film director Nikita Mikhalkov offered to charge Internet users with additional money (300 roubles per year). At the same time users will receive the opportunity to exchange the objects of copyright registered with the special accredited organization. The more often the users enjoy the content of the copyrights holders, the more money the latter will receive.

The remuneration in the form of a fixed amount for each subscriber will paid by communications providers. In December 2014 Russia’s largest Internet companies and copyright holders wrote a letter to the President Putin in which they opposed the concept of the Union of Copyright Holders of the introduction of “anti-piracy levy”.

They called the initiative of the copyright holders unconstitutional, because it involved spying on users’ traffic. The letter was signed by the heads of Mail.ru Group, “Yandex”, “Rambler”, “VKontakte”, the Association of Internet Publishers. It was reported that the project was opposed by the Ministry of Communications and the Kremlin. The Head of the Department of New Media of the Faculty of Journalism of the Moscow State University stated on the air of “Dozhd” radio station that the introduction of anti-piracy levy would look like “implementation of total surveillance”.