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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.'"
... but what an enlightened precedent it would make.
Reminds me of someone my mum knew who was caught growing marijuana in their backyard for personal use. He pleaded guilty and then kept appealing the sentence on the grounds that the punishment should not out weigh the crime, that what he did was a victimless crime, etc. What started out as a hefty jail sentence ended up in the Federal Court (Australia) with the judge basically offering him a small fine and asking if that was acceptable to him.
A similar precedent in IP law, where the punishment must be in proportion to the crime, would be wonderful.
I don't therefore I'm not.
Full disclosure: I see no ethical justification for intellectual property laws at all. (Trademarks are close, but I think fraud laws should cover that).
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.
So much the worse for GPL protections in Russia.
I've been thinking recently that this ought to be a general rule of law - not only that no act ought to be prohibited unless it causes or at least directly threatens harm to person or property (private or public), but that no one ought to be convicted of any such otherwise just prohibition unless it can be demonstrated that in that particular case, harm to person or property was actually caused or at least directly threatened. (I speak of "directly threatened" here in the sense that firing a gun at someone and missing them, or firing at random in a crowded public place and fortunately not hitting anyone, threatens harm; not in the sense of "oh someone could conceivably be hurt by this maybe", which would justify things like the RIAA's claims that they've lost oh-so-much money that they say they could have made but never actually had to begin with).
As an interesting side question, for someone with more knowledge of international copyright law than me... If someone in Russia did violate the GPL, and Russia said "who cares?", and the violators then released that software online, would its distribution in America be a crime? As in, if an American downloaded it and (say it's freeware but not Free-ware, so there's no Russian copyrights being violated) gave a copy to his friends... would he (the American) be breaking the GPL by (otherwise legitimately) distributing a work which (illegitimately) contains compiled GPL code with no source?
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
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.
"I've been thinking recently that this ought to be a general rule of law - not only that no act ought to be prohibited unless it causes or at least directly threatens harm..."
Occasionally voiced as "An it harm none, do as ye will."
I'm in total agreement with you.
The problem is there are always corner cases, and they lead to the inglorious tangle the law has become.
The local library has a copy of the California State Code from about 1910 -- it's a single middling-hefty hardback. Contrast that to the shelves upon shelves of current law, and marvel that we're not ALL in jail just for breathing.
As to the GPL -- there's a certain level of hypocrisy in saying "If you don't share it the way WE tell you to, then you can't share it at all."
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
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"
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.
Yeah - we have to keep these peasants in their place, personally I dont know why we dont hang them for stealing software - after all we used to hang them for stealing sheep. On the other hand I just cant understand why london is full of teenagers shooting each other at the momment, I guess its because its not a criminal offence punishable by prison to carry a gun under age. Yup I think we have our priorities just about right - Siberia or worse for being in recipt of stolen software and a pat on the head for walking around the streets with a loaded illegal handgun.
Trade infringement is a problem that should be addressed but it is obviously being taken far more seriously by the criminal justice system than threats of injury to individuals because of the economic power of large companies. The law is falling into disrepute.
Facts are history now plebs have politics for religion on social media.
I fail to understand why you youngsters always defend Microsoft. Perhaps you haven't been around long to have seen all the alternatives to Microsoft's junk. Yes they are evil. Yes they are American. To a lot of people in the rest of the world (you know, where the dragons are), that is a particularly bad combination at the moment.
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.