ST 227 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
1. An attack on a sea or river vessel for the purpose of taking possession of someone else’s property, committed with the use of violence or the threat of its use, is punishable by imprisonment for a term of five to ten years.
2. The same act, committed with the use of weapons or objects used as weapons, is punishable by imprisonment for a term of eight to twelve years with a fine in the amount of up to five hundred thousand rubles or in the amount of the wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to three years or without it.
3. Acts provided for in parts one or two of this article, if they were committed by an organized group or caused by negligence the death of a person or other grave consequences, are punishable by imprisonment for a term of ten to fifteen years with a fine in the amount of up to five hundred thousand rubles or in the amount wages or other income of the convicted person for a period of up to three years or without it.
Commentary to Art. 227 Criminal Code
1. The subject of the crime is a sea or river vessel, regardless of its type and affiliation.
2. The objective side is characterized by an action in the form of an attack on a sea or river vessel, i.e. sudden aggressive actions aimed at establishing control over the vessel. In this case, the attack should not occur from aboard a military vessel of another state, since in this case it is considered an act of aggression. Subsequent actions regarding the object of attack (hijacking, flooding, leaving empty) do not affect the qualification of piracy.
3. A mandatory feature of the objective side of piracy is the method of committing the crime - the attack must occur with the use of violence or the threat of its use. The elements of piracy include beatings, causing minor and moderate harm to health, as well as serious harm to health (Parts 1 - 2 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation); more serious violent crimes against the person (parts 3 - 4 of article 111, article 105 of the Criminal Code) are qualified in conjunction with art. 227 CC.
4. The law does not specify the place where the crime was committed, so actions on the high seas, as well as in the territorial and internal waters of Russia, should be regarded as piracy; an attack on a ship anchored in a port should be classified as robbery.
5. The crime is considered completed from the moment of the attack.
6. The subjective side also presupposes the purpose of taking possession of someone else’s property.
Concept
The concept of piracy has its origins in the seventeenth century .
Then, in England, one of the playwrights saw parts of his play in the work of one of the then minor writers.
In his incriminating article in one of the newspapers he noted that “such an act is real piracy.”
The word was picked up and later the whole world began to express it.
The first piece of legislation to use the word piracy, which referred to the unlawful appropriation of the merits of another, also first appeared in England.
True, then the punishment for pirates was not too severe.
The term piracy came to Russia in the nineties, when the Iron Curtain collapsed with a roar and foreign film distribution began to pour into Russian culture.
All developed countries of the world are trying to combat the phenomenon of piracy.
Everyone fights with different means, and everyone has different measures of responsibility.
This means that in each country the concept of piracy is interpreted differently, and, therefore, what is not punishable in one country is subject to liability in another.
In this particular case, we are only interested in Russian legislation and how exactly this crime is reflected in the law on piracy.
Piracy is the activity of appropriating objects and fruits of creativity, art, scientific inventions, and so on, without the direct knowledge of the author of these works.
This is exactly how such a crime is interpreted in our law.
But of course, if you start leafing through the Criminal Code of our country , you will not come across the term piracy.
And yet, it exists, although the legislator came up with a more capacious and reflective synonym for it.
In another way, piracy is called copyright infringement , which is quite natural and logical.
The rights of the person who had a hand in his creation are fundamentally infringed, and only criminal liability can affect justice.
, article 146 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is responsible for piracy .
It is there that such an act as computer piracy is revealed, and criminal liability is also provided for.
Second commentary to Art. 227 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation
1. The subject of the crime is a sea and river vessel, property. International treaties define the subject of the crime more broadly. In addition to what is provided for in the Criminal Code, it includes aircraft, and also identifies the victim - the person on board the ship.
2. The objective side is expressed in an attack on a sea or river vessel.
An assault is a sudden, explicit use of violence or force, or a sudden, explicit threat of its use, with the aim of taking possession of property.
A mandatory feature of the objective side is the method: the use of violence or the threat of its use.
Violence can be expressed in beatings, restriction of freedom or causing harm to health (with the exception of causing grievous harm to health), in force directed at a ship or its crew (shelling, bombing of a ship, forced stop), as well as in mental impact (threat murder, bodily harm, battery, etc.).
The location of the crime is the open sea. Similar actions committed in the territorial waters of Russia are qualified as robbery under Article 162 of the Criminal Code.
The crime is considered completed from the moment of the attack on a sea or river vessel.
3. The subjective side is characterized by direct intent and a special purpose - taking possession of someone else's property. International documents provide for a slightly different purpose for committing piracy - personal, which also includes the seizure of someone else's property.
4. The subject of the crime is a person who has reached the age of 16 years. If a ship is captured by a crew member or passenger, liability arises under Art. 211 CC. The crew of warships is considered pirates when they mutiny and act not on behalf of the state, but on their own initiative.
5. A qualified type of piracy (Part 2 of Article 227) is the commission of a crime with the use of weapons or objects used as weapons. This qualifying feature is interpreted in the same way as part of hostage taking (clause “d”, part 2 of article 206 of the Criminal Code).
Particularly qualifying criteria (Part 3 of Article 227 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) are the commission of piracy by an organized group, piracy that, through negligence, resulted in the death of a person or other grave consequences.
Other serious consequences are the infliction of serious harm to human health or major material damage, accident, interruption of shipping, etc.
Kinds
Computer
Computer piracy is a fairly common type and also very diverse.
Today, quite a lot of unique content is produced, which can be called computer information.
These include video games and various kinds of programs, applications and widgets .
All of them are actively copied by pirates and become easy money.
Computer and video games
Computer video games are also constantly under attack.
Manufacturers, when putting a game up for sale, count on direct benefits , that is, they want to recoup their production costs and also make a profit from their activities.
But pirates, when buying one licensed game, provide it to a wide range of people or sell it to several citizens at a time for a better price, thereby violating the law of our country.
There have been many famous cases where a newly released game on one operating system automatically became available to users of other systems.
What can we say, pirates have learned to steal video games without licenses or with fake licenses - a prime example of this.
Intellectual
Intellectual works include literature and its masterpieces, articles, night labors and other inventions that are not material in nature.
Unfortunately, it is precisely such a component as intellectual property that suffers from piracy, called “intellectual”.
Literary works
Literary works were copied many years ago and continue to be copied.
Instead of people buying books, pirates make multiple copies and make the contents of the book publicly available on one resource or another.
This hurts the authors' pockets.
Very often books are published whose authorship is assigned to other people , and devastating articles are copied several times and also assigned to other people.
In the Internet
Internet piracy - what is it?
Let's consider this question.
Criminals also engage in online piracy.
of Western films know how it manifests itself .
Distribution of films that have just been released via various torrents is Internet piracy.
Also, piracy on the Internet refers to other types of distribution of copyrighted programs, audio and video recordings.
Watch a video from RBC about Internet piracy :
Audio piracy
Now let's talk more about audio piracy.
Many pop stars and ordinary amateurs, having recorded audio works , seek to protect their rights to it.
This means that other citizens are not allowed to distribute these works, much less pass them off as their own.
But, unfortunately, in the Russian market we see that songs appear on many social networks that cannot be used by public users .
Video piracy
Video piracy is, first of all, obtaining video material through criminal means and its further use.
This manifests itself in the following:
- a pirate records a work of video art;
- the pirate is distributing this material.
Today, pirates copy only films that appear in theatrical distribution and pour them onto the Internet or sell them to the general public on electronic media.
The fight against piracy in Russia
Russia is waging a fierce fight against piracy .
Volunteers conduct raids on video game stores, as well as audio and video products, looking for unlicensed products.
And yet, despite severe punishment and constant checks, pirates still manage to act.
Recently a law was passed stating that all torrents on the Internet that distribute information that is protected by copyright must be closed.
Work is already underway.
Punishment and responsibility
For this crime, of course, there is a punishment .
In accordance with Article 146, the offender faces serious punishment for violating copyright and related rights.
It manifests itself in a fine in an amount that will not exceed the threshold of two hundred thousand rubles.
There is also punishment in the form of correctional labor.
It can last up to two hundred hours.
This crime also provides for imprisonment for up to two years.
But if a qualifying feature , then this period may be increased.
Each participant in this crime will serve his sentence individually.
Distinction from related crimes
Piracy can easily be confused with embezzlement, especially if a person is not well versed in the details of the crime.
Both pirates and people who committed embezzlement want to enrich themselves at the expense of other people, which means that the purpose of the crime is similar.
But the ways of doing it are strikingly diverse.
In the case of piracy , the criminal only uses the fruits of the creativity of other people, while the person who committed the misappropriation and embezzlement has unlawfully appropriated property belonging to another person.
A pirate simply has a benefit from one circumstance or another, and this is where the significant difference is manifested.
