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Russia's War on Piracy/Malicious Software
tmk writes "Russian minister Leonid Reiman has announced new legislation to fight software piracy. According to official information the share of pirated software in the Russian Federation decreased in the last years from 90 to 60 percent. Reiman dismissed as a myth the impression that many viruses originate in his country: 'Viruses are written all over the world. Russia is waging a consistent and successful war on malicious software.' Reiman calls for an international organization to fight Internet crime. Last year Russia agreed to take down Allofmp3 after the United States intervened."
Russia agreed to shut down Allofmp3
"The government will be expected to begin complying by June 1, 2007."
They only agreed to it is so they could get into the WTO.
We'll see how strong their resolve is & how quickly Allofmp3 returns.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Allofmp3 is still alive and well. What happens to it in June, when new legislation is enabled, is not at all clear. I doubt they will just disappear. As to levels of software piracy in Russia, I doubt they are as high as in the US.
Regarding intellectual property, the Soviet Russia joke is (unfortunately) more accurate when reversed :
e.g. : In Soviet Russia, you own your software, in America your software owns you.
First of all, 'thy' is improperly used.
Second, you've got the word 'but' and 'pirates' MUCH too close to each other for my liking.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
I am system administrator in a large nuclear physics institute in Moscow, which is by no mere coincidence a vital part of the Russian internet backbone. Since my day one I've been advocating Linux and free software, and here's the fruit: already about 10% of the institute's workers, including the director himself, use various distributions of Linux [mostly Ubuntu/Debian, Mandriva and Red Hat]. Besides, I'm currently engaged in talks with Sun regarding our migration to Sun Ray, which will run on a customized Debian system.
I believe that if the result will look as I expect it to, the university [it's the largest university in Russia and AFAIK Europe] which we are a significant part of might break off Microsoft crap in toto, although this statement can be considered a pure speculation at this moment.
No, I think Damn is still producing cracks, but I could be wrong.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Why else would a country enact laws against the interests of both country's population and its future economic power? I can see limited term copyright laws being beneficial in Russia, but only with exemptions for income levels and educational use. How does anyone benefit from a kid being computer illiterate because his parents one year salary still can not buy Vista, Office and Photoshop? If one day oil cartel countries force US women to wear burkas, you will know how that feels. Stop mucking with democratically chosen laws of sovereign nations.
Money for nothing, pix for free
Keep calling it pirating - pirates are cool!
Heard of this from a sysadmin friend who lives in Saratov, Russia. His company got raided and its owner was dragged to court and had to pay fines. Fines were substantial. He was also required to comply with licensing requirements in full, so fines weren't his only expenditure. I tried to "sell" them on Linux at least on the servers, but the boss is afraid of anything "free as in beer" now.
The term "piracy" has been used in this context for centuries. Nobody, reading about piracy as in copyright infringement, makes any mental association with the original definition of pirate in any way, since the alternate definition is something they have grown up with. If you want proof, just look at The Pirate Bay. If they honestly thought there would be serious negative connotations, would they name it that? It's not like the term "theft", where there are valid reasons to argue it (e.g., the fact that theft is still a very real problem in people's minds, thus equating the two could sway their opinion). Get over it.
The US is just defending their interests abroad. They are the largest exporter of copyrighted material in the world, and large-scale copyright infringement abroad can have an effect on American jobs.
By that logic, people who use the GPL are scum, since it is copyright law that prevents non-GPL derivatives.
GPL users aren't copyrightists - the FSF line has always been "Without copyright, the GPL would be unenforceable. It would also be unnecessary.". Using copyright doesn't make you a copyrightist - supporting copyright law does.
As to hurting american jobs? So what - you're making the classic "broken window fallacy" error. Should we all smash windows to keep glaziers employed?
And do bear in mind that international opinion of the USA is at an all-time low - there are plenty of people who wouldn't normally even think to infringe copyright, but once they hear america claiming that doing so might hurt USA's interests, they do so with abandon,
We already embrace draconian copyright law and we already monitor all transmissions (it's called echelon or whatever they're calling it these days).
And for people who are going to say "hey, the RIAA/MPAA/BSA/US Government are only protecting our interests abroad!"... um... no. They are only protecting corporate interests abroad and doing so by manipulating and demanding how other nations will behave.
This is a case of American corporations not liking the laws other nations have within their own borders. The reason we want to change their laws and force them to abide by our broken copyright systems is the same reason we want them to become democracies and the same reason that we allow corporations to do business in countries that are a risk to our nation by threat of military actions, spying and have terribly humanitarian records. That reason being that corporations have saturated existing markets. Everyone who is going to by a Justin Timberlake CD in America, Austrlia and the United Kingdom already has done so. To continue expanding their corporations, they need to expand into new markets.
Helping bring other countries into competition with us at the expense of our own nation and citizens will eventually level them off to a point where they can all afford to buy our CDs and DVDs and videogames, as long as their legal systems and copyright systems (which we will force them to devise and comply with to our liking). Meanwhile, the average person in America and the UK can have their lifestyles seriously reduced in quality before they will no longer be capable or willing to buy content from these corporations.
The call to arms from the privileged elite.
Yeah. Just like the old days. Kinda makes me nostalgic.
What?
Yeah right. There are literally 10s of other AllofMyMp3 like sites. They have flourished like mushrooms. And not just in Russia. They seem to run out of every former Soviet republic.
Not to mention the incredibly effective job that street based anti-piracy enforcement has achieved.Not.
At best, it provides another opportunity for the cops to shake down stall holders.
I think you will find anyone selling pirated CDs finds it easier to pay the cops or copyright inspects an "on the spot fine". That way everyone is happy. The CD software seller gets to keep doing business, the cop is paid, the cops boss gets a cut, and business continues.
What are you worried about? This is the market is supposed to work, after all.
You actually believe there's no benefit whatsoever to copyright? I haven't heard this a lot. Most people want to see copyright reformed - with reasonable limits on exclusivity before the content enters the public domain. Is it your opinion that copyright just shouldn't exist? And if that is the case, do you also see no value whatsoever in what copyright offers?
OK, fine. You're not a "pirate". You're a "data duplicator". And the RIAA still wants to sue your ass.
Basically, American perception that the Russian gov't is shutting down allofmp3.com is a misperception, and one which I suspect the Russians are happy not to correct. Perhaps they'll get around to changing the law, but remember that allofmp3.com pays a cut to some Russian licensing agency -- not sure where that money goes, but wouldn't surprise me if money is finding its way into gov't coffers (or politicians' pockets?)
Loose lips lose spit.
Yeah, just keep in mind that when that same government is mugging you for crappy things like Socialist Security et al., those thuggings are somehow OK.
Because CNN said so.
Actually Social Security began long before CNN was even a gleam in Ted's eye in an attempt to keep the millions of hopeless people from "thugging" the rich at a time when pure capitalism proved to be a great failure.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
Your guess is right. The actor playing Long John Silver in this movie started this "pirate dialect" tradition that included "arr" and "matey".
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
> "Russian minister Leonid Reiman has announced new legislation to fight software piracy."
Oh Mercy Me! It's great to begin my week with a good joke!
You'd think that a large and relatively modern country like Russia would be developing all its own software and wouldn't need to pirate software made by American companies.
What I'd like to know is, why does everything have to be a "War on Something" nowadays?
The more they advertise something, the more likely that "something" is the opposite of what's stated. For example:
Let's declare war on war!
Do it yourself, because no one else will do it yourself. [beta blockade 10-17 Feb]
To be precise, in Russia you own someone else's software.
The American part should be changed accordingly.
WYSIWIG, but what you see might not be what you need