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Gorbachev Asks Gates to Intervene in Piracy Case
An anonymous reader writes to tell us that former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has asked Bill Gates to intervene in a software piracy case against the headmaster of a middle school. If convicted, Alexander Ponosov could face detention in a Siberian prison camp for his crime.
The guy did something wrong, and deserves to be punished, but how in his wildest imagination can Gorbachev think Gates needs to be involved? When somebody steals something you don't call the item manufacturer.
The government can't save you.
This isn't a case about Microsoft going after a teacher. The real issue here is the pressure that the US puts on countries that want to join the World Trade Organization. The hypocrisy here is ridiculous. Look at China and the rampant piracy there.
But this leads to another issue and that is pricing. The cost of software is way out of reach for most of these countries. Piracy becomes the only alternative (besides open source of course).
gasmonsoI don't know, did this schoolmaster knowingly "pirate" his software? It's not clear to me from the article. Gorbachev argues the nuance he didn't know he was committing a crime. That to me sounds like splitting semantic hairs.
It's possible the schoolmaster assumed he could make unlimited copies of the software for non-profit, academic use only. If he works at a school that has to watch every penny in its budget (like 90% of schools in the world), and he makes barely enough to live on himself (like 90% of teachers in the world), he probably assumed Microsoft would not attempt to charge a price that he and his school would be unable to pay.
Clearly Russian schools need a donation of 10,000 Kubuntu live CDs. This will provide them with well-needed coasters, and maybe a few schools would try it out and switch to legitimate software rather than risk having their teachers sent to Siberia.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
This is a criminal matter and not civil? What can bill gates do about it?
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Talk about balking up the wrong tree.
Mr. Gorbachev, with all due respect, you should have checked for Gates past before making yourself ridiculous.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
It would make more sense to petition the Russian Parole Board if they still have it.
Microsoft for the moment has no expansion plans into humanitarianism.
You get what you pay for, but you never know what virus you are going to get. Better to get it for free with a faithful and honest Ubuntu.
Seriously, at some point when they start threatening you with being sent to prison in Siberia.... I think it is proving a bit too dangerous to be using Microsoft products. It just isn't remotely worth this type of bullshit.
Is it just me or is it ridiculous to jail people much less send them to the gulag for software piracy? Even agreeing that it's wrong, it shouldn't be something you do hard time for. Seriously folks...
You're thinking small. Why miniaturize the laser, when we could instead enlarge the sharks? -John Searle
Seriously, what is wrong with this guy?
Nowadays we have Free and Open Source Software that is "free and in speech and beer", better quality, more flexible, more useful and more user-friendly than Microsoft's stuff.
There is no excuse for helping yourself to Microsoft's software, other than ignorance and laziness, especially in education, where being a virus vector and consumer of Project documents are not primary concerns.
Shout loud, let the world know.
Stick Men
The primary problem here is "He didn't know he was committing a crime." If we would like the world outside the US and Western Europe to join the rest of the world anytime soon, people have to understand that even if there is no "physical object" it isn't correct to just copy it.
Now, this particular case of enforcement might be a bit over the ability of the offender to pay. However, that is besides the point. The problem is that much of Russia probably doesn't understand. Or, if you pay attention to the Internet, much of Russia probably doesn't care, either.
This isn't just about mega-corporations squeezing the last time from people. This is the whole concept of "intellectual property", rights, restrictions and licensing. These folks probably wouldn't know (or care) what the rules for GPL software are either. So this is not something that does not affect those hating the MPAA and RIAA. It affects anyone that creates something and does not release it completely without restriction to the public domain.
GPL is a restricted and legally obligating license and does not fall under the idea of releasing something completely without restriction to the public domain. Creative Commons licensing is not (usually) the same as releasing to the public domain. BSD licensing is closer but still not the same as "without restriction" in the public domain.
Without some education, these people that just don't know they are doing something wrong will continue and teach children to grow up and violate copyright, the GPL, Creative Commons and every other sort of license you can imagine. Is educating them by sending them to a prison came correct? Maybe not. But just writing it off isn't correct either.
Obviously Bill Gates has no control over the Russian judicial system. However, Gorbachev's appeal is more to show the connection between big business and governments around the world. While it may not do anything legally, it certainly paints M$ iin a bad light (and Putin). This is perhaps our only way of fighting powerful corporate interests. We call out the REAL culprits and hurt their image (and perhaps profits) with an expose. If we want to be successful we have to use the media to fight these companies and their desctructive practices. Of course M$ will try to distance themselves from the case.
If this teacher has the backing of people like Gorbachev, I doubt he will spend any time in a gulag. I am a lot more concerned about the poeple who never make it into the headlines...
I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand. -Confucius
"Reeducation Camp"
Where we make little Johnny and Sue into proper mindless consumers.. er.. morally upright citizens!
Russia has vastly different copyright laws than the USA. You cant just assume he knew it was illegal in Russia just becuase you know it is illegal in the USA. There are many things that are legal in Russia that people fullyy understand that we could hardly imagine as being legal. The fact that the teacher thought copying software for non-commercial education use is not hard for me to imagine.
unzip; strip; touch; finger; mount; fsck; more; yes; unmount; sleep
If he works at a school that has to watch every penny in its budget (like 90% of schools in the world), and he makes barely enough to live on himself (like 90% of teachers in the world)
Horsehockey. Not saying Windows isn't overpriced (although there is now a version for developing countries), teachers, at least in the US, are paid better than most white collar workers.
The opposite of progress is congress
If you're going to be inside the gulag, wouldn't you want there to be more vulnerabilities??
Duhh, think a tiny bit and you'l see that this is actually a *political* case.
Russia has been trying for years to join the WTO and the USA has been blocking it's attempts, mainly on the bases that it doesn't enforce US copyright (When a commercial entity can manipulate foreign policy in this way, there is a problem) and this copyright case in mainly to demonstrate the will of the Russian government to enforce copyright and the said case is seen as a test example.
The sad thing is that the teacher, from a remote village, bought the computers pre-installed with windows so his claim that he didn't know that Windows was "pirated", seems perfectly plausible.
I think you will have to search hard among educated people before you find anyone that thinks the teacher should be sent to the Goulag in Siberia for this "crime".
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
There are two major things wrong here.
1. Nobody should do prison time for infriging on a copyright. At least not when said infrigment is not part of a for profit activity. Even if you are one of those people that thinks copyright infringment and theft are not different, we still don't lock people up for shop lifting unless they are repeat offenders. We demand they make restitution and perhaps perform some community service as penence. As I say all the time the crime is not 100 times worse just because a computer was somehow used.
*yes this guy should be punished, just not so severly.
2. The other group of people want to argue that boohoo he can't afford Windows and other proprietary software and neither can alot of people in less well off parts of the world therfore they should be entitled. Look I think software copyrights and patents are lame, but for now the law is the law. You might and in my opinion probably are morally justified in brakeing it, especially if its in the name of makeing a social statement but if you do then you have to face the concequences. This is not like food or medicine nobody *needs* Windows period. If someone is only licensing their software/media for money you have choices, pay for it, infringe on it and take your chances, make your own, do without, or find a FOSS replacement.
*No we should not just let him off because he is the little guy getting screwed by big corporations and governments.
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Any education involving computers practically demands piracy as a function of learning these days. I doubt there's a graphic design course in the world whose course fees are more than the total cost of software students do their homework on, let alone film, architecture or engineering degrees. Whole desktop computers cost less than a Photoshop license these days.
The root of the problem is that forced use of proprietary software in education will always lead to this 'theft', whether teacher, student or both. Most students and most schools are barely getting by.
I don't know a single teacher that is any good at their job who doesn't grade papers at home (unpaid), buy some amount of supplies for their class (unreimbursed), and as a result make far less than average on an hourly basis.
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
Both parents, 2 siblings, and a couple extended family members are all teachers, or in the case of my father superintendent.
Yes pay is ok, it's not stellar but it's good, though raises and cost of living increases rarely ever happen.
Benefits are excellent, summers off unless you opt for extra pay through summer school teaching. Good medical insurance for free, my dad's gets free generic drugs and anything over $200 in medical bills (including vision and dental) a year is covered 100%. Other benefits depend on tenure and position, like paid retraining, access to facilities after hours (my first real internet connection was in my dad's office, which I had free reign of after 6pm and on weekends). Some school districts recieve a lot of unnecessary grant money and budget allocation for tech upgrades, meaning at the end of the fiscal year even a small school can have $50k in unused tech cash and a need of ideas on what to spend it on.
Biggest benefit is stability and portability. EVERY community needs teachers, and it usually takes a good decade for population growth rates to effect wether they still need 50 teachers, or just 45.
Downsides are what turn most people off from the job. Longer hours than most jobs. Enough unpaid overtime to make an EA programmer pity you. More breakroom drama than ABC's daytime lineup. No Child Left Behind and other completely fucking stupid plans and regulations. Daily exposure to more infectious diseases than most doctors will ever see (this is why they don't skimp on the medical insurance).
Kids who wish you were sent to a siberian prison camp. Parents who ignore the fact their little angel is a holy terror and attribute everything from bad grades to disciplinary issues on your incompetence (so what if little billy was caught cheating, sleeps in class, and has started 3 fights this week alone, YOU hate him and are singling him out for undue punishment and failing grades). Parents who will do anything to correct any percieved issues with little angel's grades (death threats, my dad as a principal got dozens from parents looking for a way their kid won't fail 3rd grade again).
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
In America, you do have to go to college to get a degree in teaching. And you do have to get continuing education in those months when you are not teaching.
The teachers don't always repeat the script because they want to. They repeat the script because their students have to do well on standardized tests that school boards and the government force on them. Originally, they had to score well because schools with better scores got a better class of student, one with parents who could pay the taxes to improve the schools. These days, I believe that every school in America is federally required to be above average.
Did you not have any teachers, at all, when you were growing up?
There is a fine line between recklessness and courage... -- Paul McCartney
Ignorance of the law, indeed, does not excuse one from guilt for its infraction. This is was a very well known principle in the Soviet Union. It was a commonly repeated phrase. So a school teacher certainly knew that. But this doesn't matter. Gorbachev is asking for mercy -- not justice.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
> Ignorance is not an excuse
When the legal code in the US fills entire floors of a stadium sized library how in the world can ignorance not be an excuse? There isn't a single person in the nation who knows all of the laws.
We do not have too many criminals. We have too many laws.
the NPG electrode was replaced with carbon blac
I think the sentencing for piracy and hacking is rediculous in general. So of course I don't support the possible punishment. But its the Russian and the US government that needs to be changed. Their punishments are way too severe. I certainly don't want people going to jail over my work. I get paid enough. Human life is more valuable then a stupid copy of Windows.
I lived in Russia for two year. The problem with this as I see it is that outside of Moscow/St. Petersburg it is nearly impossible to find a legitimate copy of Windows. I've never seen one anyway. The same goes for music and DVDs, I wouldn't have known where to go to get a legit copy of anything, but the pirated versions were EVERYWHERE. In Russia they can just assume that anyone with a computer has something illegal on it. I would imagine that many people don't even realize that they're using pirated software, they're just using the software that they bought from some vendor on the street, and that's what everyone else in the whole country is doing, so why shouldn't they? It's probably mostly the teens who are more connected with the rest of the world through the internet cafes that have a good understanding of what's pirated and what's not. A lot of the adults, especially the farther you get from the capitol, don't even understand what piracy is. Computers are not ubiquitous the way they are in America. Just my $.02, having lived in Russia.
-nB I live with one. I've also worked in the education system. Our combined observations are:
My partner considers herself a good teacher; she NEVER brings work home and she NEVER gets home late because of workload (as opposed to parents' evenings etc.)
In an attempt to seem more sympathetic to teachers, I will say this: the qualities which would make them better at organising their workload and getting with it are not the same qualities that make them good at teaching subjects like English Literature.