MOSCOW, July 9 (RAPSI) - The anti-piracy law could be used to block Russian Wikipedia due to its hyperlinks to content that has not been checked for compliance with copyright laws, Stanislav Kozlovsky, executive director of the Wikimedia RU non-profit partnership, told Digit.ru.

The law, which will come into force on August 1, also protects copyright in the film industry.

It sets out the legal grounds and the procedure for limiting access to websites that distribute movies and TV films in violation of copyright, as well as the rules for bringing to account or condoning information brokers (Internet and hosting providers).

The State Duma plans to amend the law in the fall by adding a section on the protection of the rights to music and lyrics.

Websites may also be blocked for violating copyright law by featuring hyperlinks to websites that contain illegal content.

Access to Russian Wikipedia could be blocked because all its articles include links to sources that may not hold ownership to the content, and it would be impossible to check all these links as they are in their millions, said Kozlovsky.

The penalties set out in the anti-piracy law include blocking access to individual sites and also to IP addresses. Kozlovsky said that many Russian providers only have the technical capability to block IP addresses, which will prevent the use of not only an individual webpage, but an entire resource.

Russian Wikipedia's network address includes a Russian-language site and also encyclopedias in 284 languages. If access to it is blocked, no one in Russia will be able to use any of these encyclopedias.

Wikipedia has had similar problems in China, Saudi Arabia and Iran.