VKontakte, Russia’s biggest social network, is in talks with online video services to swap its users’ illegal content for licensed video, says the Itar-Tass news agency.

      According to the sources cited by the agency, the movies would be still available free of charge, but the viewers would have to put up with advertising.

      The amount of commercials would go down with the time, promised one of the sources close to the negotiations.

      Under the deal that is being hammered out, VKontakte would share the profit with online services but the exact ration has not been disclosed.

      There has been no official confirmation of the news.

      Russian online users have been complaining about the new anti-piracy law that entered into force since August.

      The legislation imposes restrictions on illegal content being uploaded and stored on the Internet and sets out tough fines for people and operators who abuse them.

      Just recently, a family couple has been given a four year suspended sentence for regularly uploading movies to share with other people.

      They’ve become the first victim of what some see as a crackdown of Internet freedoms.

      There have been many calls and petitions to amend the law.

      The government has been reluctant to do it saying the move has helped to protect intellectual property.