Services that are created with account of people’s real requirements differ from those that are created on the basis of a Web 2.0 trend through cloning. Take a practical task, such as giving birth to and bringing up a healthy child. The solution of the “service operatives” would be to take a trendy mechanism and screw on a sign saying “For Mums”. “Blogs for Mums”, for example. However, maintaining a blog does not give answers to the day-today questions you get from young parents. Now take the resources that are made by the mothers themselves and collected in our contest site. They are completely different: (1) specialised sites with information you won’t find on general portals, such as information on twins; 2) subject-based forums, unlike single blogs, are specially “honed” to exchange experience; (3) online consultancy with doctors in the form of individual services; (4) services to arrange collective actions, such as joint purchasing. Naturally, anything that brings in fast money will be cloned. However, the surplus of clones actually kills them off: the boom in dating services will pass just as the boom in SMS-text services. And yet these same technologies could be used in more “human” services, where there is no danger of collapse.

The fourth part of the Civil Code, adopted this week, promises companies that violate copyright laws the confiscation of equipment and their liquidation. Maximum imprisonment for copyright infringement will be six years instead of five as before. The maximum fine has now risen from 300,000 to 500,000 roubles. The names of websites are becoming personal property: a person who acquires a domain becomes the holder of the rights to its name. However for now this is of no particular concern to Russians; as the well-known saying goes, "the severity of Russian laws is surpassed only by the laxity of its enforcement".

Sberbank of Russia has announced the intention to develop a system of remote servicing of clients. According to the President and Chairman of the Board Andrei Kazmin there are 30,000 clients to a branch in Moscow, despite there being about 800 branches throughout the capital. And the area of a typical branch rarely exceeds 100 square metres, leading to the crush on pension day. The problem with expanding the floor area of branches is linked with high property prices. Sberbank sees a solution to the problem in automation and servicing at a distance through remote terminals. However, the word "Internet" has yet to be heard in these forecasts.