MOSCOW, November 20 - RAPSI. The Thirteenth Commercial Court of Appeals has registered an appeal by VKontakte, owner of the eponymous social network, against the court ruling to award Gala Records 550,000 rubles ($17,493) for hosting songs by the popular singer MakSim, the court's representative told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) on Tuesday.

The date to hear the appeal has not been set yet. The defendant is appealing the St. Petersburg Commercial Court's October ruling which upheld the lawsuit to recover the funds.

Gala Records holds that although the defendants restricted access to the songs in question, the restriction was insufficient because users could still find the songs by changing the search parameters.

This is not the first time that a social network has been ordered to pay for hosting MakSim songs online without her consent. The court has already collected 210,000 rubles ($6,000) for MakSim and for the band Infinity. The ruling was later upheld by higher courts.

In November 2011, the Supreme Commercial Court's presidium established its position with respect to the liability of providers, file hosting services and social networks for content unlawfully posted by users: Internet resources shall not incur liability if they do not initiate the transfer of the content, do not choose the receiver, do not control its quality and if they take preventative action to preclude the violation of exclusive rights.

Gala Records is Russia's first private recording company. Its website states that it was established in 1988. It is both a recording and a music publishing company.
VKontakte is a Russian version of Facebook and is one of the country's most visited sites.