On Saturday, August 10, an online petition against Russia’s draconian anti-piracy law received 100,000 signatures, which is enough to send it to the government for discussion.

      The petition was published on the Russian Popular Initiatives (ROI) web portal on July 4, two days after Russian President signed the new law against film piracy that allows copyright holders to request the court to block contested content before ruling on its legality, without requiring them to try to contact the uploader before going to court.

      As it is said in the petition's text, the anti-piracy law violates the presumption of innocence and allows violations on the part of copyright holders. The petition's signers call on Russian lawmakers to suspend the law and include amendments suggested by the Internet community, or scrap the law altogether.

      The Russian anti-piracy law came into force on August 1. It has become one of the most controversial and discussed laws for the past time. Many IT-specialists criticize it for tenhnical incompetence, while Russian common Internet users call the law "draconian" and compare it to the American SOPA ("Stop Online Piracy Act"), a draconian piece of copyright-protecting legislation stalled in the US Congress since 2012 after mass protests from the internet industry and web users.