Court in Smolensk annuls the registration of the Yabloko candidate Larisa Dolzhikova

This was reported by ASTRA. The court in Smolensk annulled the registration of the Yabloko candidate Larisa Dolzhikova at the suit of Green Party candidate Daria Shavrikova. The Yabloko press service said the reason was two posts on Dolzhikova’s personal page on VKontakte.

The first complaint was a photo of Dolzhikova with party symbolism and the slogan “I am for peace and freedom”. The image contained a quote from Noam Chomsky: “If you believe that there is an instinct for freedom, that there is a possibility to change things — then there is a chance that you will make the world better. The choice is yours”, and next to it were the author’s name and an image of his signature.

The plaintiff claimed that this post violated Chomsky’s copyright, as well as that of the co-author of the book Latin America: From Colonization to Globalization, Heinz Dieterich, and the publisher Ocean Press. The court recognized both posts as campaign materials posted in violation of intellectual property law.

The second basis for the lawsuit was a recording of a fragment of a debate between candidates on the Rossiya 24 television channel, published on August 31. The video showed shots from the studio, the Rossiya 24 Smolensk logo, the caption “Live broadcast”, and other design elements of the channel. The court held that these materials were used without the copyright holder’s consent, and the video recording was later removed at the request of the election commission.

Sources

• Material: t.me