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Teacher Avoids Getting Sent to Siberia For Piracy
Piracy Support Line writes "Russian principal Alexander Ponosov will not be visiting Siberia any time soon, at least not for the allegedly illegal Microsoft software that were preloaded on the computers they bought and Microsoft supported the reseller's story. Although Bill Gates rejected Mikhail Gorbachev's personal appeal for mercy on behalf of the teacher, the judge was kinder. Judge Elvira Mosheva decided to dismiss the case because 'Microsoft's financial damage is too insignificant for a criminal investigation.'"
Let me be the first to say... "Ha Ha"
Good. Guy deserves something for the trouble he went through.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
Let me be the first to say "In Soviet Russia..."
Lemee see....
1: Administrator buys what he thinks is a legit copy. It isnt.
2: Gorbachev AND Gates are tossing words around. Erm, HOLY SHIT. Big names in each corner.
3: Russia already has warned any researcher in coming to the USA (dmitri skylarov vs adobe)
4: Do we trust a US company or open source that anybody can review? China already supports Red Flag Linux.
5: Putin came out in defense of the administrator. What he says, goes.
Need we say more? The cards are stacked against MS. They back off, and then they go "soft" on copyright violations, but they are the big bullies if they do go ahead.
The financial damage was too insignificant? That's a rather strange reason to dismiss a case, as it violates the letter of the law. It's not a bad idea, except that is has a massive potential for abuse.
It's just sad that court costs are so high, and you can't sue for anywhere close to the actual damage.
The government can't save you.
Siberia is great this time of year...
Nice FUD job though. Gotta get those ad impressions going.
Microsoft could have handled this differently and spun the whole thing to their advantage. This could have been a "Genuine Advantage" moment. "See? Make sure your pre-installed software comes with the original disks and software keys! We'll let you off the hook, but all you out there please learn from Mr. Ponosov's predicament and deal only with reputable certified Microsoft resellers" or some such.
But instead they turned the other cheek, and a teacher almost was sentenced to prison in Siberia over something as simple as missing software keys. And a Russian judge showed more compassion and understanding of the matter than Bill Gates. Those are the facts, and they do not look good. This is, and rightfully should be, a PR nightmare for Microsoft.
A shame really. The Gates Foundation gives away piles of cash for humanitarian goals, but events like this let you know where that money is really coming from. And what people behind it are really like. Business first, before anything else, always.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
In soviet russia, courts treat you justly!
seriously.. we have to go to a former communist nation to get rulings the US should have?
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
Anybody have a stack of Edubuntu disks that start up using Russian that they can send to this guy?
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
Normally a small damage amount is not grounds for bringing a CRIMINAL case against a person. Rather, the matter would have to be pursued via CIVIL law. And that would mean Microsoft would have to sue the person directly, not get the state to go after them.
Microsoft has subverted the laws of the world and made minor acts of copyright infringement into criminal acts. This way Microsoft gets the taxpayer to fund a massive witch hunt against people, mostly good, who have done little wrong. And in the great scheme of things, minor copyright infringement is among the world's least important problems.
The way Microsoft has turned the government against the people is a good example of how rotten the company is -- and how Microsoft will stop at nothing to corrupt and destroy the world.
Did we export the American justice system too?
(or they just stole it)
This rises an interesting question. Where do they deport the inhabitants of Siberia when they are found guilty in a court of law? To Kiev, Leningrad or Odessa?. Maybe they are preemptively punished for the very fact of living in Siberia. They are already punished by their place of birth without commiting any crime. They accumulate 'punishment credit' for future and thus they and can commit any crime they wish without any further punishment (maybe with the exception of murder).
>> Teacher Avoids Getting Sent to Siberia For Piracy
Clearly they are not teaching the three "Arrrrr!"s in school these days.
Siberia is the biggest prison in the world, like Australia in the early 18xx. This is a scary thought!. At least Australia is not a prison anymore but a nation (founded by criminals).
When will Siberia evolve from a prison into a nation, like Australia?
They send them to the other Odessa, obviously.
Like what I said? You might like my music
Sure I know it is "haha" since Microsoft in the recieving end, but take the context put linux and gpl on one end, and you will realize that a court could rule that since no one is placed in a financial disadvantage people can abuse the gpl. When Microsoft gets screwed over by something it is just a matter of time before someone applies to opensource stuff.
From what I had read, the teacher was warned once, and he still continued using pirated software. Frankly he did break the law, he deserves a punishment, maybe not prison, but atleast slap on the wrist. People should be encouraged to follow licenses be in Sony's music license, microsoft's eula, or FSF's gpl.
Freedom (or the illusion of it) causes complacency with a lot of people. Seriously, do you think Nixon (or even Reagan) could have gotten around one of the most important parts of the Geneva Convention on a technicality?
Sure, M$ has nothing to do with the global advance of draconian "intellectual property" law. Nobody has been threatening other contries with trade embargo of the sort usually reserved for wars. No, nothing to do with Bill Gates and M$, they are the good guys trying to eduspam your children about how to buy fine Office software and what a dirty bad pirate you are if you don't buy a M$ OS with each and every computer sold. Oh noes, M$ would never launch any action against a school.
Their solution, to never buy another piece of commercial software, is fitting punishment for those who demanded the laws Russia now has. They will soon learn that the it was stupid to mess around with it to begin with.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
I suspect this is completely off-topic, but his name Ponosov literally means Diarrhea-man in Russian.
All I'm saying, Microsoft would not get any good PR out of a "Drarrhea-man"
Also, does anyone know how exactly he got caught? What I mean is, 90+% of Windows installs in Russia are pirated, so why this particular teacher has to get caught? A student ratted him out or something?
They both cease to be able to identify with their citizens-customers, because they both view them as a form of indentured citizen who owes his existance to the overseer.
Microsoft has been one of the main instigators pushing for enforcing IP in russia through trade negotiations. This particular case was giving them a blackeye in public so they released a little PR stunt disclaimer "oh noes it wasn't us!", whch although technically true is pretty far into the bullshit class of normal corporate statements. To say they weren't involved at all is disingenuous-if MS didn't want their copyright enforced in russia, to "stop piracy of their valuable expensive product"-this case would never have been brought in the first place. They have been lobbying HARD for this in general terms, all over the planet. It is PRECISELY because MS, and the various media copyright folks, etc, have been pushing this and russia wants to look better to get into the WTO that the case was even brought. That and this poor schmuck was a lot easier to take on than the russian mob. It just blew up on them, a stunt that failed. they just picked some random schmoe out of the millions who use bootleg copies for a test case, but it backfired, and it was picked up so fast by the media that MS was looking petty and vindictive so of course they claimed "no interest". If they *really* had no interest, they could have just as easily issued a press release saying they will no longer be pushing for ANY piracy cases in russia, but they haven't, have they?
With that said, I have NO sympathy anymore for people who run windows anything, legit, pirate, doesn't matter. You go out of your way to run crapware from convicted skunks & crooks, inc.,-you get what you pay for or steal-crapware. Instant karma, suckers.
rules having last name Ponosov punishment enough. (Ponos = diarrhea in Russian)
I should read more carefully. Not only is M$ responsible for crappy IP laws elsewhere, they actually helped to prosecute this one.
Last week, Microsoft executive Olga Dergunova defended the reseller that provided the computers.
Then you follow that link and find:
Oh yeah, I wonder where the prosecution got the outrageous value of that coppied software at $10,000 instead of the $100 the judge eventually decided it was worth?
You can keep your M$ spin to yourself, Bungi, M$ created, prosecuted and is ultimately responsible for it. If you consider M$'s anti-competitive practices, it's even worse. M$ does everything in their power to make it hard to run anything but M$ so they can take your money, even if you happen to be a no budget teacher in the backwoods of the Ural mountains. Cases like this are the cost of non free software.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
It doesn't even make sense to send someone to Siberia for piracy. The place is bloody landlocked. Now Venice, that would be a good place to send someone for piracy.
When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
No you just have to go to a country where the branches of government are not in the pockets of the music industry. The economic model of that country is irrelevant.
That's a great conversation you pointed to.
I love the link to http://www.manhattan.k12.ca.us/legal/latimes/lausd 1.html which now returns a M$ 404, but still can be found at the archive.org wayback machine. Here's some of the really cool stuff M$ did to L.A. through the BSA back in 1998!
Great stuff! I just love the way you defend M$'s extortion of public schools. Want to tell me they deserved it? Got any more? How about some links to them suing Churches, Lighthouse for the Blind or Girl Scouts?
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
I think this story deserves the "insovietrussia" tag... :]
Wall Street thinks the failure is due to crappy software. In part, the author asserts:
Powerful stuff from venture capitalist and CNBC analyst Paul Kedrosky.
And sure enough, sales are falling now that the squirt of ultimate fanboy is over.
The non free software development model is over and the businesses that stick with it are too. It's about time.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
It's kind of obvious -- they haven't yet internalized the idea that property rights (intellectual or material) trump all, and that a person who dares to violate the sanctity of a corporation's assets is a reprehensible person. Here in the west, we may not all actively profess that kind of beliefs, but even dissidents like slashdotters are aware that we're going against the wishes of our society when we claim copyright should be abolished.
Thank$ Erri$
"If her claims are true"? If? If!
I'll give you an "if". If she goes to jail over this, I'll pour hot grits down my pants. If she doesn't, you abase yourself before all of Slashdot and publicly state you're a fool for believing crap like this.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
I gazed in your eye$,
$uch a beautiful blue;
My heart whi$pered to me,
And that'$ right when I knew;
The wave$ had cea$ed cra$hing,
On the $and at our feet;
Time had $topped pa$$ing,
My $earch wa$ complete;
I finally di$covered,
What I'd known all along;
A my$tery uncovered,
That ju$t couldn't be wrong;
It wa$n't our fir$t ki$$,
Nor' the day that we met;
But I realized $omething,
I will never forget;
With the $tar$ $hining brightly,
From high up above;
I'd one word to de$cribe it,
That word, i$ love.
I knew then the$e feeling$,
For my $weetheart were true;
The $tallion of my dream$,
And my $oulmate, i$ you.
I think of it every time,
That I look at the $tar$;
Thi$ memory i$ mine,
But that moment wa$
OUR$.
"Seriously, do you think Nixon (or even Reagan) could have gotten around one of the most important parts of the Geneva Convention on a technicality?",/i>
C'mon that's a trick question - censorship was a lot more effective back then.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
I'm from a country near Russia and we use piracy software everywhere. Companies have no licence for M$ software... I had very big problems with closed source software and now i use GPL software only, because it's better. I'm so indifferent about intellectual property :P
"humans knowledge belong to the humans"
Until Linux is completely compatible with ALL DEVICES there is no way a school or corporation is going to use it as an independent OS. Some may say hey there are several devices out there that are cheap and compatible. But already having a device is cheaper than spending more to dispose of said device and replacing it. Windows is known for its compatibility. I have a machine with the latest distro of Ubuntu, and it cannot print or use my camera. These devices are the cheapest out there including a 20$ Lexmark and a 10$ web camera. Now I know that with all the money you spend on Windows software could go towards replacement of said printer or camera. But if you can pirate a version of Windows for free than you can pay your teachers better, get new books, buy paper and other supplies for your printers, building maintenance, etc. This is the most likely reason for the piracy of Windows. The solution for this is to have those who say let's send this school several copies of ubuntu to go and work with the device makers out there to make drivers. I noticed there are several drivers already out there, there just isn't complete support . So get out there and put your money where your mouth is!
Disclaimer: Now I'm _not_ a F/OSS zealot usually, and probably half the /. crowd would normally find me leaning towards the MS side. Heck, by /. standards I've even been accused of being a MS fanboy before, although God knows it's not hard to get called that here. But in this case I find it sad and counter-productive for F/OSS too.
Yes, _if_ he had used GPL software, all that would have happened. Except he didn't use OSS, he just went and pirated Windows instead. And the whole case just created a precedent for that too. There are millions of computers in Russia which could have a financial incentive to use some free (at least as in beer) software instead or some cheap local software. Now they'll keep using a pirated version of Windows instead. Congrats.
All piracy helps kill isn't the big software houses, but they help kill their small competitors. Piracy didn't kill MS Office, but it helped nearly kill Star Office and the horde of smaller options that used to exist. Sure, they missed 90% of the Office features that 90% of the population never needed, but they would have been plenty enough and cheap for writing a recipe or a CV in. If the option really were "do I get MS Office for a shitload of money, or Someone1234 Write for very little money, or KWrite for free", the second and third options would look a lot more viable. But when the option becomes "I can copy all them for free, so do I get MS Office or Someone1234 Write or KWrite", the choice also becomes "WTF, let's get MS Office then."
People don't all drive Ferraris, so some go buy a modest small car instead, because they can't pirate a car. So a lot more options exist. In the software world they pirate the big thing, and let the smaller budget options die.
Worse yet, the illusion of ubiquitousness helped kill competition even further past some point. Let's all pirate Office at home because that's what we use at work too. And let's then all install Office at work, because, wth, everyone already knows how to use their pirated copy at home.
And what do you think that does to F/OSS in Russia too? There could have been local distros, small local companies maybe customizing it for schools or offering cheap tech support/installations, etc. There could have been kids learning to use KDE or Gnome instead of XP's shitty Fischer Price interface (unless you disable the fluff), and maybe having a look at the code, in those schools. Now they'll all grow on pirated Windows software, and continue to not even understand the "use the free choice, if you can't afford the behemoth" idea. Probably not even understanding why and how it would help to contribute some code to the free choice. Why would you bother when you know everyone will just pirate Windows instead? Way to go.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
The author of this article should be embarassed for the travesty of a story he's published. I'm not a fan in any way, shape, or form of Microsoft, but this is outright lying.
0 2/08/234864
From TFA: "Possibly bowing to public pressure, Microsoft offered a "peace agreement," which Ponosov, asserting his innocence, refused to accept, according to CNews."
That's interesting considering the fact that Microsoft is in no position to do any such thing. They're not suing him, the Russian government was. That, by definition, is the distinction between a criminal case and a civil case.
Allow me to explain the things the article blatantly ignored:
Russia is notorious for ignoring copyright law and is the second biggest producer of illegal software and entertainment; China being the biggest. In response to pressure from the Russian branch of the MPAA (yes, even in Russia they still use that acronym), and numerous other sources, the local government decided to prosecute the teacher. They had little to no support from the federal government, or from Microsoft. Putin personally called the lawsuit ridiculous, and Microsoft's stance was that they see no reason to sue him personally, and don't want to have anything to do with the lawsuit, but will cooperate with Russian authorities so that "this case resolved in an amicable manner, so that everyone can move forward and Mr. Ponosov can focus all of his attention on his students". For their full reply, see here: http://eng.cnews.ru/news/line/indexEn.shtml?2007/
I'm amazed that the immediate response is "ZOMG, MICROSOFT IS SUING PEOPLE" when they're doing no such thing. Even if Microsoft came out and told them they wanted the case stopped, the prosecution has no obligation to do so since the fact that it's Microsoft is irrelevant. It's a violation of piracy law, the specific software pirated is purely academic. It's the local Russian government screwing up by trying to make an example of someone, making both the federal government, and Microsoft, look bad for something they have nothing to do with. They're jumping the gun on trying to enforce piracy laws and in doing so do everyone involved more harm than good (unless you consider anti-Microsoft sentiment a good thing, but that's another issue entirely).
I'd see your point if he was tried for a patent violation, or any other kind of stealing an _idea_. But he pirated a product. It's the difference between copying the suspension idea for a Ferrari and breaking into a Ferrary for a joy ride. It's not even remotely the same thing.
Plus, MS until _very_ recently didn't even bother much with patents, and I still don't know of any case when they sued someone for patent infringements. And then mostly started patenting stuff when they got sued for blindingly obvious patents. So from an idea exchange point of view, MS practices what it preaches, so to speak. Or at least certainly doesn't bother preaching against it either.
And before someone comes up with some lame "haha, but MS never innovated anything so they couldn't sue" slogan, actually they did come with new (if not spectacular) stuff, and at any rate bought other companies which did. So, you know, even if those guys didn't work for MS at the time when they invented that stuff, MS now owns their IP anyway. Not saying that it makes MS the great innovator, but they do own some original IP, even if by buying it. That's what I'm saying. So if they did try to block everything infringing on that IP, you'd see a _lot_ of (frivolous) litigation coming from Redmond.
To put it into perspective, other companies have litigated for as little as your app _looking_ like theirs. There were lawsuits coming out of Lotus like crazy against everyone with the menus at the bottom for example. If MS were to try to do that, ooer, you'd see some serious lawsuits against every sod who made a xine-based player that looks like Windows Media Player. Or Mono? Ooer. That would be some litigation potential. If you think that
Basically if this guy had stolen an idea from MS, like, I don't know, making an Aero-like window manager for KDE or Gnome, probably MS couldn't care less. (I know Aero is the bad example and not original, but bear with me. Replace it with implementing DirectX 10 in Wine, or implementing some new protocol as a kernel driver, or whatever else instead, if it makes you feel any better.)
But he didn't, he just pirated Windows. Which, frankly, I'm hard pressed to see as some great "revenge of the innovators" act, in any form or shape.
Well, at least you admit it. That's something
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
We dont need no Microsoft..
If MS software was not so heavily copied then it wasn't a standard remind that...
This teacher had students who probaply learned how to use MS software too.
In the western world MS heavily funds schools so that young kids learn how to use MS products, a keen marketing idea because when they leave school they know how to work with MS products only...
So this teacher was in fact doing that on his own...
As otherwise remind what if the whole of rusia would use Linux? Don't think Gates would like that either, altough its just verry easy for poetin to say from new on MS software is forbidden on schools, as kids should make up their own decesion to decide what to use.
They dont need no tourch control, hey teacher leave your kids alone.
Its perhaps time for MS to think about different prices for their software, when people use it in a personal form. Perhaps a new version, perhaps a free version for example a version that could not be joined to domain or active directory (work group only) that would have a limited number of shares. But has only the verry basics.
As to me it's only a netwrok&disk-operating system not much more then that.
To much blablaba, oh and sayin this i'm a MS admin and hate linux solutionsOften (cracky)
But it went wrong after the playmobile XP i believe, rather would have liked if they once for all completly finish a product. (NT4 was on the right way on the end)
"Although Bill Gates rejected Mikhail Gorbachev's personal appeal for mercy on behalf of the teacher..."
I haven't been following the story since the last Slashdot article, but did Bill Gates reject the personal appeal, or did Microsoft? Huge difference. I can't find any source indicating what exactly happened from their side.
Which is irrelevant to this case too. We're not talking some security researcher who disclosed a security vulnerability, nor even cracked some DRM, but about someone who allegedly pirated some programs. I'm willing to bet that there was exactly zero research involved.
Sorry, but... Here I'll call outright bullshit. Sorry, this is _not_ about "let's use F/OSS instead of closed source", it's about using pirated closed source programs. If they wanted to support F/OSS, they could have done so, but no, they wanted to keep using Windows for free. There's a freakin' huge difference there.
And spare me the emotional parts about trust, please. So they can trust closed source if it's pirated? Does Windows become more open if you use a pirated serial number? Does Office save its files in a less proprietary format just because it's on a CD-R? WTF?
There _are_ good arguments for trusting F/OSS instead of closed source programs and proprietary formats. That senator from IIRC Peru made a damn good case for example. But this case isn't it. It's plain and simple about pirating closed source programs. If you will, it's exactly the _opposite_: these guys decided that they can trust MS and closed source all right, they just don't want to pay.
Step out of the "yay, they stuck it to MS" mentality a little, and you may see that there's little to celebrate. There would have been ways to make a pro-OSS or anti-closed-source point, but that was not what happened here. They just gave a vote of confidence to MS, if anything. Price being equal (free as in beer, even if by virtue of being stolen beer) they just decided they'd rather use Windows.
And, without going into your other points in detail, for the people of Russia I see even less to celebrate in this mockery of justice. It just shows that the whole country, including prominent figures like Gorbachev and (scarily enough) their president Putin, just can't wrap their head around such notions as "rule of the law". They're still stuck in the soviet era mentality, where "justice" is something based on scapegoats, favoritism, nepotism and rich powerful guys punishing the little guys they don't like. E.g., Gorbachev just showed that he has no freakin' clue what's the difference between a criminal case and Bill Gates persecuting a poor teacher.
If that's the kind of politicians and mentality that Russia still has, then I feel genuinely sorry for those people.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
The whole point of free markets is
- that consumers have broad choice, including lower priced substitutes for crucial (i.e. non-luxury) goods
- that market forces, including the limited spending power of consumers, keeps the pricing policies of producers in check
If software producers followed these principles and priced their software lower in low-income markets however, you'd get a consumer revolt in the primary high-income market ("I pay $2,000 for my license of BlaCAD and they get it for $800 in country X? WTF?"). Your average Westerner's mindset is "if I have to pay X for this crap, they should pay X as well". And that's partly how we arrived at the 'digital divide', which some people are now trying to fix with initiatives like OLPC.
That's a simple way of looking at it of course. You could argue that giving lower-income territories software "cheaper" might result in a lot of work performed with such software in the West immediately being outsourced to wherever software usage costs happen to be lower in Dollar or Euro terms. But its one way to explain the "lower than Western income, but having to buy at software at Western prices" paradox out there.
Why did the chicken cross the road? Because Elon Musk put an AI chip in its head.
I wonder if anyone knows where the original version of that can be found. You know, translations can be very tricky...
The saddest poem
I believe the RIAA cases are civil (?) and this one was a criminal case - big difference.
If you think Windows is what drives big iron computing you'll have to start looking around. One of the strengths of Linux is its foundation in Unix. The funny thing is that is doesn't HAVE to be 'the best' at all, although IMHO it scores high in terms of usability. It only has to be so much better than Windows that even FUD and marketing can't hide the obvious, and that's been happening for years now (OK, it's not exactly hard to do from a security point of view).
:-)
Add to that that the original intention was just to have another Unix, not to beat MS and I would advise investors to start ditching MS shares like there's no tomorrow.
But I'm not a financial advisor
In case you haven't noticed monarchies continue to thrive and are actually doing quite well. In fact the Kingdom of Norway was rated #1 by the UN's annual Human Development Index (a measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, and standard of living). The US was number 8. Of the top 20 countries, 9 are monarchies - plus Canada, Australia and New Zealand have the British Queen as head of state. But I guess you meant the absolute form of monarchy?
Its a bit hard to send them to Kiev or Odessa - they are in the Ukraine not the Russian Federation. Lenningrad = St. Petersburg, the best city in Russia. I would recommend somewhere like Kamchatka. That is about as remote as you can get whilst still being in the Russian Federation.
This guy hasn't killed anyone, hasn't abused anyone, has been educating children. Frankly both M$ and the gpl can take a running jump. This is a human being doing good in the world. Punish him and the whole world is just that little bit worse.
Nope, it wasn't even the BSA, it was the Russian state suing this guy all along. It was a criminal, not a civil case.
Gorbachev just used this case to get some free publicity as some kind of Defender Of The Russian People, but his letter to Bill Gates was as irrelevant as it could possibly get for this case. There were no charges that MS could _possibly_ drop, since MS (or BSA) had not pressed any charges against him to start with. It's that simple.
The only moment I know of when MS was in any way even contacted by the Russian authorities about this case was when the Russians offered this teacher a weird "we'll let you go if you apologize nicely to MS" bargain. AFAIK, MS actually accepted that, but the teacher refused and preferred to go to trial.
Honestly, I'm disappointe to heck and back in Slashdot's coverage of this. Even by bleating zealot standards, this is stupid. God knows there's enough to complain about MS, there's no reason to dillute it with falsehoods and whines. I'd rather that people would get the real message loud and clear about what MS _does_ do wrong, than leave a general impression of just having a bunch of incoherent whiners against it. The former might change people's minds, the latter will even get MS sympathy.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
seriously.. we have to go to a former communist nation to get rulings the US should have?
Why not? Insofar as a communist nation would have nothing to offer (which I doubt), they aren't any more, as you said yourself. For the rest of the world it is funny to see how Americans invariably think of themselves as the best, a golden standard, and are usually surprised when things are managed better, or at least equally well in other countries.
Bearing in mind the US foureign policy... actually it is not funny.
Wich means that is MS is copying the evil from disney they are really copying the evil from Steve Jobs/Apple. Not only does this mean that MS ALWAYS copies from Apple but also that Apple is the original evil.
It all makes sense now.
If you think about it, the "desktop" was developed by a copy company yet you can go to jail for copying it.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Come on, I hate microsoft as much as the next /.er, but Bill Gates did not REJECT anything. He is not a cop. He is not a judge. It isn't up to him to innocence or guilt or drop charges in Russia.
-- Having a Creationist Museum is like having an Atheist place of worship
Right, to Siberia, where the bears walk on the streets socializing with bearded men. /sarcasm
Seriously, why is it so difficult not to give up to the desire to use easy journalistic tricks, such as stereotypes for the comic effect. Not that I am offended as a former Russian citizen, but... give me a break. This is like "Soviet Russia" joke - outdated, tasteless and plain vanilla stupid.
I do not believe in karma. "Funny"=-6. Do good and forbid evil. Yours, Oft-Offtopic Flamebaiting Troll.
M$ doesn't need to sue. The threat is enough. School districts in many countries have been shaken down by M$ with just the threat. None of them have money for a legal battle against M$, regardless of how they think the outcome will be. But then you knew that about your employer already.
" 'Microsoft's financial damage is too insignificant for a criminal investigation.'"
Now if I can just find out where I can send a bottle of Vodka so she gets it.
She has saved their justice system from possibly months of useless court time. I salute this judge for her jurisprudence. If you want to prosecute this guy I say go after the millions that pirated Win95 back in the day and, huh wait, that's what gave M$ their marketshare isn't it...oh well...
End of Line.
Bill Gates' mask just fell off for a second. Eecch. It's not a pretty sight.
/cynical mode
"The foundation for the improvement of Bill Gates' reputation has made lots of donations to idiotic causes in Africa (instead of a sterilization program). Bill smiled for the camera. Then went back to plotting world domination soon after."
It's not the *absence* of financial implication, it's the "too insignificant" (according to TFA) small scale of it.
:
:
In fact this indirectly recognize that there *was* indeed financial disadvantage (whether or not the teacher was going to hand money and buy the incenses to have OS anyway if he couldn't download it, OR if he couldn't afford an OS and no matter what he'll never pay anything, and just try another solution is neglected).
The reason while the judge doesn't consider it useful to pursue the suit, is that she thinks that just a few copies that microsoft didn't sell isn't going to hurt them as much, as if he was *distributing* it on the net (in which case he'll be causing a much more significant loss of revenue to Microsoft).
Most of the time (except for example for import/export regulation where "limit" quantities are specified) the law is quite binary, actions are either forbidden or authorised : Copyright laws, in most jurisdiction, forbids to make copies without have license to do so. Whether one make 1 single unlicensed copy for himself, couple of dozens copies for a computer in the room, or has participated in massive diffusion of unlicensed software over the net with millions of copies. Whether one "steals" a shareware that costs $1.00 or one deploys a dozen of different unlicensed software, all on several dozens of computer in a whole corporation.
It's left at the discretion of judge and jury to decide at which end of the range of punitive measure they will sentence, or they think the whole thing is meaningful (compared to this case, where the teacher mostly hasn't just paid for a couple of license, which will be anyway much smaller than the cost of the suit. Technically stealing a 10 chewing gum is stealing. Nobody bothers to sue such a thief, and probably no judge will accept to handle such a meaningless case. The store prefer to make an arrangement with the thief, usually "put it back on the shelf or I'll tell it to your mommy").
And to come back to your GPL example : GPL happens to consider such distinction of scale between personal copies and distribution.
Per GPL, you're authorized to do whatever you want with your own copy of software on your own machines.
Per GPL, it only start to matters when you start to distribute software : you can distribute it unmodified as it came (with code source or link to them and a copy of GPL), you can modify it, BUT if you modify it and want to distribute the modified version, you have to comply with the GPL a provide the source code of your modifications. If you don't comply to the GPL, you lose this license and only the general copyright law apply.
Per copyright laws in most countries, you're not allowed to distribute code.
Now with your situation : it doesn't involve distribution, so there no way teacher could be guilty.
If he acquired the software : no problem for him, he could easily get on GPL-compliant copy.
If he releases the software : GPL allows unlimited verbatim copies.
If he installs the software : his software, his machines, no problem.
If he modifies the software : no problem. Do whatever you want with you own copy
If he installs the modified version : his "own custom" software on his own machines, do as you wish.
If he releases the modified version : Only *there* can something go wrong
- he distributes the modified software with modified code : no problem, go ahead, that's the whole philosophy of the GPL
- he distributes on binaries of the modified software : that a violation of the GPL and voids it. In absence of GPL, only copyright laws apply and in most jurisdictions, they disallow distribution of software you don't own.
In the teachers case
he would have no problems to install the software for free on all machines in the school.
he would have no p
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
In Soviet Russia, computer pirate you!
Bite my shiny metal ass.
My mother lives in Odessa, TX.
A most dreary place. My grandfather calls it the "Asshole of the World".
I think that is because it is surrounded by buttes.
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
But let's turn that statement around just the tiniest bit:
the illegal Microsoft software that was allegedly preloaded on the computers they bought
Makes the whole context seem a little different, doesn't it?
If anything I think it's almost certain that the software was pirated - isn't there the possibility that the teacher himself pirated it, at least as likely as that of him buying it preinstalled?
Really I think we're all convinced of the surface narrative - the teacher did indeed buy the computers with a pirated installation of Windows preinstalled - and that interpretation renders the "allegedly" entirely redundant.
Stroller.
I can't speak for Russia, but a lot of the new guard in government in places like Czech., Poland, etc is very wary of the idea of people losing civil rights. They suffered through too much under Soviet control to let a similar abomination happen again. I'd suspect that the same goes for Russia.
-b.
Well, under the Soviets, there were basically three classes of people in Siberia.
(1) Convicts in prison camps. Basically like the chain gangs in the Southern US in the 1930s, except a hell of a lot worse. The convicts in turn were divided into politicals and ordinary criminals, the latter often being given positions as trusties in the camps, and lording it over the politicals.
(2) People released from prison or deported. Usually tied to a Siberian town or village and not able to live in any Russian city or in European Russia for a certain number of years.
(3) Free people. People whose families either lived there for generations, or people lured by the promise of higher wages, patriotic Komsomol fervor, etc to work in Siberia. Also some native tribes, similar to Inuit in Alaska and northern Canada.
-b.
We need more teachers here. Because of the winter coming so late this year the bears didn't go into hybernation and hungrily roamed the countryside getting many village school teachers. There have also been many http://news.ngs.ru/more/24841.php brutal fox attacks in our area too.
US-UK-Israel: The real Axis of Evil
...but the degree of damage the alleged activity caused to the victim is irrelevant.
If Posonov is indeed guilty, he should be punished, period, end of story. If not, he should go free.
The size and wealth of his alleged victim is completely irrelevant to his degree of guilt (or lack thereof).
"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"
This story scares me ! I am an network administrator for a few places including a school. I have been struggling to keep unlicensed software off of our computer network - unfortunately some teachers take it upon themselves to install software, say Microsoft Office, because they cannot waste the 5 minutes it takes to get used to OpenOffice.org.
I have given them lots of software options on their computer: All computers dual boot Windows XP (licensed!) and SLED10. All computers have lots of Free Software to do just about any task and most programs are very easy to learn. Unfortunately we have a few programs the teachers have to run that require Administrator rights, this opens the door for them to install any software. I have had to remove quite a few programs: MS Office, Adobe software, Hallmark Card software, etc.
If I am the Network Admin, under U.S. Law, am I LEGALLY responsible if the school comes up having unlicensed software installed during an Audit ??
I have had this discussion with the Superintendent and he is seriously requiring all our Vendors to have their programs run under Linux within 2 years (as if they actually would care to lose us as a customer), which would allow us to destory the Windows partitions on all of our computers. Needless to say, I have a feeling within the next year or so I will have to become a WINE expert.
That is, as opposed to an Apache 404? Or are "M$" 404's more insulting to you? Is there something special about "M$" 404s? Do they smell better than Apache's?
This rises an interesting question. Where do they deport the inhabitants of Siberia when they are found guilty in a court of law? To Kiev, Leningrad or Odessa?
To One Microsoft Way, Redmond, Washington?
> I would not be surprised if MS has been leaning on the Russian authorities to ensure that the teacher got off - which would explain why the serious charges were dropped by the prosecution. They can not openly say they are in favour of piracy, but the last thing they want is people switching to Linux to save money.
I would be. It's far more easily explained by the fact that Putin and Gorbachev came out against it, while Bill & co. refused to (and also DID support their reseller who, according to said teacher, sold them the pirated software). In other words, there's absolutely no reason to suppose that they secretly support it, and if you want to finger someone as putting pressure on the judge, Putin and Gorbachev both have the clout to do it and they're publicly in favor of letting the guy off.
Um.
How will destroying Windows help solve your software piracy problem?
Kid-proof tablet..
99% of the software available for Linux is Free Software - that alone would take a big chunk out of the piracy issue. Furthermore a standard user cannot install anything on the machine without the superuser password - they can only install software within their home directory (or a shared network folder). This would take the blame of the piracy (if it would occur) back to the person who actually does the piracy and not the Network Admin, Principal or Superintendant.
Norway never "nationalized" anything - however the government at the time did require that a majority of the profits would go to the state. Royal Dutch Shell and British Petroleum have been the largest investors and developers of oil field off the coast of Norway. So if anything the "thieves" are still here, not that they get to keep much of their earnings. Today the state oil company, Statoil, is actually a publicly traded company listed on the NYSE. The Norwegian government has something like 50-60% of the shares. However the actual surplus from the oil is NOT invested in the local economy - but invested abroad to avoid overheating our own economy.
Oh. Right - sorry. I forgot: It's not about actually solving a problem, but instead about adding additional steps to The Blame Game, and its counterpart The Finger-Pointing Game.
So it doesn't matter if piracy continues, as long as everyone's covering their own ass and doing a bunch of hand-waving.
My mistake.
(ObTopic: Hey, you stupid bunch of fucks! Stop running Windows XP as administrator, learn a thing or two about file permissions (NTFS does not have to suck) and it'll stop letting your users steal Office!)
Kid-proof tablet..