Criminal Liability for Intellectual Rights Infringements in the Internet

This work is devoted to the problem of digital piracy. The purpose of current research is scientific development of theoretical and practical problems of legal protection of intellectual property. The main objectives of the study are analyzing doctrine and legal practice in the field of intellectual property and investigating the suggestions for the modernization of Russian criminal legislation. The subject of this study includes rules and institutions of civil and criminal law, tendencies of development and improvement of Russian criminal legislation, court practice, crime statistics. Methodology of this study consists of both general scientific and special legal methods. Scientific and practical significance of the project lies in extended theses for the modernization of the current criminal law in the field of intellectual property. In particular, current research contains a proposal to make a separate article in the Criminal Code for digital piracy. Moreover, work includes grounds for considering that the subject of digital piracy is the economic relations (instead of the person). This approach could reflect the essence of the intellectual rights infringement in the Internet. In addition, the work analyzes new social phenomenon – cybersquatting. The work contains suggestions on the possibility of qualification of cybersquatting as a fraud, an illegal use of means of individualization and a violation of antitrust laws.