OREANDA-NEWS. April 29, 2011. The meeting participants discussed how to develop the Russian section of the internet, looking in particular at issues such as legal regulation of the internet, responsibility for information published, and copyright and intellectual property rights protection in the internet.

The meeting took place at the Russian National Youth Library, Russia’s biggest library specifically targeting a youth audience. Mr Medvedev toured the library’s reading rooms and other departments before the meeting began.

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PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA DMITRY MEDVEDEV: Colleagues, we have a good opportunity today to discuss the state of affairs in the Russian section of the internet, and in the internet in general.

I don’t want to make any lengthy speeches. You all know the problems and possibilities better than anyone, all the more so as some of the internet community’s most prominent representatives are here today. I would like to hear your views, and add some comments of my own too.

As I see it, my job as President is to make hopefully the right decisions on regulating social relations in general, including in the internet. The internet is a very specific environment, however, and the minute we start talking about regulation people immediately start imagining that the state wants to get its hands on everything and establish the kinds of controls that exist only in some countries with rather specific systems. This is why before making any decisions on regulation we first have to discuss the issues very thoroughly.

I simply want to get an idea of your views on these issues, and talk about other issues too, responsibility for published content on the internet, for example, and the very important matter of copyright, which is something I already began discussing with the people at the top. This is an issue I myself devoted a lot of study to in my undergraduate and postgraduate years, and while teaching law. I did not specialise in copyright and related rights, but as a specialist in civil law I lectured and held seminars on this subject. It is an area I am familiar with and is really extremely important for the future. The thing is, many people look at today’s developments and say they sound the death knell for copyright, while others see opportunities for taking a whole new approach to copyright, which will be regulated in completely new ways. In any case, the internet creates fantastic opportunities for the publication – and reproduction – of large volumes of information, and at the same time creates new challenges for regulating intellectual property rights.

There are many other issues too, crime, for example, cases when the internet can be for good, and also turned into a rather sharp weapon. This is something that has been much discussed. We all realise that combating extremism, terrorism, and crime are very much relevant tasks in any case, no matter how we look at the situation.

That’s probably enough for a start. You are all well aware of these issues. If you allow, I propose that we give the floor first to those of our colleagues who want to deliver an opening message, and then we can have a free discussion of the various issues. The floor is yours.