Russian Software Piracy Crackdown Restricts Free Speech

reporter writes "According to a report recently filed by the Washington Post, the Kremlin has finally begun to crackdown on software piracy ... with a twist. The Russian state agency is targetting political enemies with claims of piracy, including independent news media, political parties, and private advocacy groups. In particular, 'the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, one of the last outposts of critical journalism in Russia, suspended publication of its regional edition in the southern city of Samara on Monday after prosecutors opened a criminal case against its editor, alleging that his publication used unlicensed software.'" This doesn't even take into account our recent discussion of the Kremlin's grip on internet access in that country.

Comments

Oh no!!!

[CaptainPatent]

Nothing for you to see here. Please move along. They've already struck /. too!

great

[JustNiz]

It'll just drive more people to switch to Linux.

Re:great

[Creepy Crawler]

If you think OSes really matter, get a clue.

The way they deal with things: Tell us what you were doing, or you're going to a Siberian gulag. Or we'll kill you.

Re:great

[wizardforce]

In this case, I don't think it mattered what OS was being used, they'd find something to charge him with.

Re:great

[Chandon Seldon]

You're still a bit better off if they had to fabricate a charge than if you were really guilty of something as easy and obvious to demonstrate as software piracy. Looking at it from another angle, this is one of the reasons why it's socially detrimental to have poorly enforced laws against common activities (whether it be piracy, drug possession, low speed limits, whatever) - it gives abusive authorities the ability to selectively enforce those laws against people they don't like for some reason.

Re:great

[LingNoi]

Actually they'd probably charge the company without realising they used Linux then they'd be screwed in court.

Re:great

[superwiz]

What makes you think they were not using Linux? In a totalitarian state you are guilty because you were accused.

Re:great

[Nephrite]

Not really. As laws don't really work in Russia, they may confiscate servers with false suspicion of piracy and then return them (of course) but down time is too expensive to afford, so people just give bribes or shut down. And installing Linux doesn't protect you. There is anecdotal evidence the cops said "There is no 'My computer' icon on your desktop, so the software is pirated" and confiscated the computer. And yes, your guess is right, they had Linux with KDE on that box.

Re:great

[ShieldW0lf]

Looks like the socialists are using the capitalists own weapons against them.

Cool.

If the opposition in Russia was actually opposing an oppresive regime, I might be more concerned.

Being that they're a bunch of crackpots funded by foreign interests who would like nothing better than to use these very same oppressive laws against the population of Russia for private gain, I'm actually rather amused.

Go Putin!

Re:great

[Hatta]

Not really. As laws don't really work in Russia, they may confiscate servers with false suspicion of piracy and then return them (of course) but down time is too expensive to afford, so people just give bribes or shut down.

How is that different than America?

There is anecdotal evidence the cops said "There is no 'My computer' icon on your desktop, so the software is pirated" and confiscated the computer. And yes, your guess is right, they had Linux with KDE on that box.

Obviously if there's no "My computer" icon, it's not "your computer". ;P

Re:great

[Anonymous Coward]

they'd find something to charge him with Absolutely true. Sometimes tax auditors flat out tell you that they have to find something, or they, personally, will be in trouble and you will not like the results. I imagine, other government auditors work similarly.

Re:great

[Grishnakh]

Not really. As laws don't really work in Russia, they may confiscate servers with false suspicion of piracy and then return them (of course) but down time is too expensive to afford, so people just give bribes or shut down.

How is that different than America?

That's a very good point: it's no different from America at all.

Of course, did anyone ever say that America was a country where people had freedom, and the laws actually worked? Any such person is a liar or an idiot.

Re:great

[Beardo the Bearded]

You think these charges would go to court?

These charges are to put the dissenters out of business. I suppose that's better than being assassinated, but you've got to realize that most of the world does not operate the way the Western World does. If you criticize most governments, you die. We take for granted that we can say what we want about the people in charge. In reality, most people get killed. That makes martyrs, so the best bet is to discredit those who oppose you first. "Yeah, they were totally unscrupulous. Look at all the pirated software they're using. You can't believe a thing these guys say."

Look at Tienanmen Square - the Chinese murdered thousands of protesters, and now it's illegal to even mention it. I know, they aren't Russian. All the Russians do is inject you with plutonium, set off car bombs, and steal your computers. That's if you're a reporter!

The US may suck sometimes, but at least you've got a shot at a trial. Gitmo notwithstanding, of course, but imagine if reporting on Gitmo got you sent there for life.

Re:great

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you meant to say "Go Putain!"

Re:great

[Anonymous Coward]

It's pretty sad reflection on the state of democracy in the western world if we need to compare to violent and oppressive regimes elsewhere to feel good about how fortunate we are.

We should be figuring out how to help the rest of the world gain more responsible and transparent governments that don't abuse their citizens, not sitting on our butts and commenting "well, at least we don't have it *that* bad". I mean, you're right and all (I'm not ungrateful about how good it is here), but I'm not happy when I see other countries sliding into worse conditions than they already have. The developments in Russia, Pakistan, and several other ostensibly democratic countries recently are really bad signs. I wish I could do something more concrete to help them get better.

Re:great

[LingNoi]

We should be figuring out how to help the rest of the world gain more responsible and transparent governments that don't abuse their citizens, not sitting on our butts and commenting "well, at least we don't have it *that* bad".

Doing that only labels you as a hypocrite because of something completely unrelated to the subject matter but towards what your country has done in a past war.

Re:great

[Dragonslicer]

Of course, did anyone ever say that America was a country where people had freedom, and the laws actually worked? Any such person is a liar or an idiot. Or simply using the past tense.

Re:great

[Cyno]

If you criticize most governments, you die.

And you're A-okay with this? Why do we support doing business with these governments? Fascism is not something to be ignored. It will come back to bite us sooner than we think. Unfortunately we have to wait for the next 9/11 because nobody wants to talk about the last one. If you want to do something about THIS problem RIGHT NOW then demand a new criminal investigation into 9/11. And support ae911truth.org.

Re:great

[Anonymous Coward]

"Yeah, they were totally unscrupulous. Look at all the pirated software they're using. You can't believe a thing these guys say." - this will only make people feel sympathy for them in Russia . The way to create a negative impression is "they were so stupid that they got caught".

Re:great

[Grishnakh]

I guess it depends on how flexible you are with the term "freedom", and how far back you want to go in time.

Marijuana has been illegal back to the 40s or so. Polygamy has been illegal all along; it's a relationship between consenting adults, but somehow it's illegal in a country that promotes "freedom". Before 1861, slavery was legal, meaning that millions of people had no freedom whatsoever. Before the 1910s or 20s, women weren't allowed to vote, so they were effectively no more free than children, who also can't vote (but for good reason). I don't know exactly when men who didn't own land were finally allowed to vote, but that was in there too. I guess if you're a white, male, land owner, you probably had the most freedom around 1790. If you're a black female, however, right now is probably your best bet.

Maybe America should just stop yapping about "freedom" altogether, since I don't think we ever had it at all. It's just a jingoistic buzzword to make the people think they have it better here than elsewhere.

Re:great

[Anonymous Coward]

All the Russians do is inject you with plutonium, set off car bombs, and steal your computers.

Polonium, not plutonium. And it was a spray, not an injection.

Re:great

[Opportunist]

Actually, it can be an issue.

Go into any mid-sized company today and claim they're pirating. They're guilty. I dare say that and I know in 99% of cases I will be right.

Given the way companies buy computers and software licenses, i.e. often separate from one another, they're prone to actually not paying for a license or two, or for using the wrong software on a machen, or to update a machine without having the license. Not because they want to "save", but simply because it requires a lot of oversight and care to make sure you cover all your bases.

With Linux and OSS, your advantage is that you simply CANNOT "pirate" it. How do you steal something that's free for the taking?

I'm almost sure that none of the companies I mentioned above really deliberately "forgot" to buy a license. They really did forget or install the wrong software. But the law doesn't care about that.

Re:great

[ioshhdflwuegfh]

[...]it's socially detrimental to have poorly enforced laws against common activities (whether it be piracy, drug possession, low speed limits, whatever) - it gives abusive authorities the ability to selectively enforce those laws against people they don't like for some reason. Then just imagine what you're advocating being actually enforced. That would collapse the legal system. How do you enforce the strict speed limits for instance?

Re:great

[ioshhdflwuegfh]

Looks like the socialists are using the capitalists own weapons against them. Maybe. Or maybe the capitalists are using the socialists own weapons against them. For private gains:

If the opposition in Russia was actually opposing an oppressive regime, I might be more concerned.

Being that they're a bunch of crackpots funded by foreign interests who would like nothing better than to use these very same oppressive laws against the population of Russia for private gain, I'm actually rather amused.

Re:great

[shutdown -p now]

Putin is not a socialist. Putin's policies are best described as authoritarian statist capitalism. If that doesn't ring a bell, I'll say that in fewer words: fascism.

Re:great

[ioshhdflwuegfh]

It'll just drive more people to switch to Linux. Good point.

Re:great

[Chandon Seldon]

How do you enforce the strict speed limits for instance?

You can't, especially if the speed limit is so low that everyone breaks it all the time in normal driving. So rather than making everyone a criminal that the cops have an excuse to harass at any time, you fix the law.

Re:great

[ioshhdflwuegfh]

You can't, especially if the speed limit is so low that everyone breaks it all the time in normal driving. So rather than making everyone a criminal that the cops have an excuse to harass at any time, you fix the law. But how? If the solution is to raise the too-low speed limits, some people will still drive over the limit especially if the limits are reasonable. I mean it's always possible to drive a bit faster, to get quicker to job or home or wherever else one is going. If the limits are raised to much, roads would become unsafe.

Re:great

[Chandon Seldon]

But how? If the solution is to raise the too-low speed limits, some people will still drive over the limit especially if the limits are reasonable. I mean it's always possible to drive a bit faster, to get quicker to job or home or wherever else one is going. If the limits are raised to much, roads would become unsafe.

To start, I suggest you read this: http://www.ibiblio.org/rdu/sl-irrel.html

The conclusion I draw from that (and other material I've read on the same topic) is that there's no safety justification for setting speed limits such that the majority of drivers are breaking the law.

Anybody surprised?

[Creepy Crawler]

Ever since Gorbachev helped end the Cold War (and the USSR), the Russians have tried to fill a void left by that power vacuum.

Unfortunately, many ex-KGB people are out there vying for power towards the "good old days". Turns out that someone is Putin right now. Power and threat of assassination should be enough to shut up critics.. or eat a dust-grain of Po.

Could the Russians have a great state? Absolutely... but not with the KGB still distributively in power.

Ad absurdum "In Soviet Rusia jokes"... because thats where they're headed back to.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[Anonymous Coward]

Turns out that someone is Putin right now.

Yesterday, nobody was Putin. Tomorrow, someone else will be Putin ;)

Re:Anybody surprised?

[TheNarrator]

Two high level defectors in the 1980s Anatoliy Golitsyn (Author of "The Perestroika Deception) and Jan Sejna (Author of "We Will Bury You") have written books and tried to tell the west that Perestroika was not genuine reform, but just a strategic retreat planned by the KGB (now GRU) that would help the Soviets catch up to the west technologically and economically after which they would return back to dictatorship and imperialism.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[Stavr0]

Ad absurdum "In Soviet Rusia jokes"... because thats where they're headed back to. Don't you mean "In Putinist Russia ... " ?

Re:Anybody surprised?

[Creepy Crawler]

Was massive land loss part of their equation?

What is it now? 16 countries? And they're pissing them off at bat.

If anything they have the most to thank towards Global warming.. nobody wants Siberia. However, there is a treasure trove of minerals that can be extracted when the permafrost thaws.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[Creepy Crawler]

No, they're the same thing.

Really, the whole Communism thing never really took hold there. If it did, there would have been no real "leader" to begin with. Their whole country was based yet on another monarch with absolute power. They just set forth communism for non-governmental workers. The poor share all their money (which = poor).

Re:Anybody surprised?

[Anonymous Coward]

Got your tinfoil hat on too tight?

Re:Anybody surprised?

[Creepy Crawler]

Oh please. Save the anti-US rhetoric.

Yes, our system sucks. It could be a lot better. However, we at least have our freedom to do mostly what we please. We can cross state borders easily, we can enter commerce easily, we can work for ourselves easily. We can also go to the anti-Bush rally or anti-War rally and not be shot at.

And our president(s) doesn't poison political enemies. Err..Ahmadinejad is still alive spouting anti-holocaust garbage.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[MightyMartian]

And guess what, on this side of the Atlantic, you don't risk government persecution if you call a spade a spade.

This attempt to make the US sound like Putinocracy or Communist China is absurd, and worse, bullshit. There are abuses, there are always abuses, but at the end of the day, where would you rather be right at this moment in time; Moscow or Detroit?

Re:Anybody surprised?

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm. I don't usually see foreign leaders called political enemies. Political enemies are the guys/gals with whom he is competing for power inside the American political system. His political enemies would be McCain, Kerry, Clinton, Kennedy, the ACLU, MoveOn.org etc...

Re:Anybody surprised?

[ThousandStars]

Moscow or Detroit?

Detroit? DETROIT?! You choose the American city with the climate the most similar to Moscow and the economy most similar to Siberia, or wherever the hell the Soviet Union tried manufacturing. Of those two options, I'll take Seattle.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[Anonymous Coward]

ummm...

How are the girls in Detroit?

Re:Anybody surprised?

[Zontar_Thing_From_Ve]

but just a strategic retreat planned by the KGB (now GRU) that would help the Soviets catch up to the west technologically and economically after which they would return back to dictatorship and imperialism.

If this were true, which I doubt, then it came with a very high price - the permanent breakup of the USSR and the loss of 14 Soviet Republics (Republic no. 15 is Russia - there were 15 Republics in the USSR), some of which aren't interested at all in being vassals to Mother Russia - Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova. I get the impression that Armenia and Azerbaijan are somewhat indifferent to Russia and the 5 "Stan" countries are interested in Russia only in so far as they can get something (ie. money) out of it. Only Belarus remains loyal to Mother Russia and got paid back earlier in the year by Mother Russia telling it that it better pay up what it owed on natural gas and oil that came from Russia or there would be some, ahem, "unpleasantness".

Re:Anybody surprised?

[NeutronCowboy]

Actually, it's not just the ex-KGB people who are pining for the "good old days". It's a large chunk of Russia. Yes, there is a significant (even if badly beat up) opposition. However, there is a much larger contingent of ardent Putin supporters. His 80% approval rating is probably inflated, but his real numbers aren't all that far off.

It's been said that the prerequisite for Democracy is a strong middle-class. Guess what - Russia went straight from Feudalism with a complete lack of middle-class to Communism, with its similar lack of a strong middle-class. This means that the political tradition in Russia is one of central strong men (and one woman) who have near absolute power over everything. I don't see that changing anytime soon - the Enlightenment period is long past, and the current global atmosphere does not support its revival.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[Nephrite]

No difference. The rulers are all the same, they just changed coats. Yesterday they were communists today they are democrats, but the laws and the practices stay the same.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[Anonymous Coward]

There are abuses, there are always abuses, but at the end of the day, where would you rather be right at this moment in time; Moscow or Detroit? Frankly, I'd rather be in Philadelphia.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[Chuckstar]

Have you ever been to Detroit? I'd pick Moscow.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[ericspinder]

Was massive land loss part of their equation? Maybe, I believe that it's a well known fact that colonies and occupation cost a ship load of money. A country is much better off dominating economically than militarily.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[Anonymous Coward]

> We can cross state borders easily

Cross to Cuba for me please?

Re:Anybody surprised?

[ultranova]

If anything they have the most to thank towards Global warming.. nobody wants Siberia. However, there is a treasure trove of minerals that can be extracted when the permafrost thaws.

One would imagine it being easier to mine and transport vast amounts of heavy minerals from solid ground than methane-spitting swamp, but maybe that's just me.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[n dot l]

If this were true, which I doubt, then it came with a very high price - the permanent breakup of the USSR and the loss of 14 Soviet Republics (Republic no. 15 is Russia - there were 15 Republics in the USSR), some of which aren't interested at all in being vassals to Mother Russia. Meh. The Russians annexed that land once, they probably think they can do it again.

Although, on second thought, I don't know why they'd even bother declaring a new USSR when they can just as easily control their puppet states through other means, like economic pressure (Russia now supplies a third of Europe's oil and natural gas), "diplomacy" (like the recently ratified withdrawal from the CFE treaty and other scare tactics), and covert means (the KGB always was good at bribing and blackmailing others into doing their bidding). And leaving those people "independent" helps reduce internal and international tensions so, if anything, I'd say breaking up the USSR was a net win - if this is indeed true.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[NeutronCowboy]

I doubt that the Perestroika was a planned retreat by the KGB. I do agree, however, that the KGB people are still smarting from what they saw as the loss of their position as one of the superpowers in the world. As is a large chunk of Russia. I believe that the Perestroika movement was genuine, but it ultimately didn't have enough support across a large enough swath of the population. The ex-KGB people though do have that support.

Russia is already a dictatorship (when was the last open election in Russia?) in all but name, and it's certainly working on the imperialism part. Anybody who's treating Russia as a friend or a partner will be in for a rude awakening. EU, I'm looking at you.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[MightyYar]

Like, oh, say one on the other side of the Atlantic. They are shutting "opposition" newspapers down where? Canada? Because they aren't doing it in the US. In fact, the government in the US is moving towards forbidding a single entity from owning too many media assets - that is sort of the opposite of what they would be doing if they were trying to control the media.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[Anonymous Coward]

Your president supports extrajudicial killings (among other things), though, and while you can demonstrate if you want to, you just might be locked up in a "free speech zone" if you do.

Yeah, the USA are a better place to live than Russia. But you're further from perfect than even you might realise.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[morgan_greywolf]

Uh, mods and everyone else: I am NOT trolling. I'm an American.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[Cassius Corodes]

Such is the great cycle of Putin

Re:Anybody surprised?

[morgan_greywolf]

We can also go to the anti-Bush rally or anti-War rally and not be shot at. Really? You sure about that?

BTW--I'm an American.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[morgan_greywolf]

Correct link. My bad

Re:Anybody surprised?

[operagost]

taser !== shot at

Re:Anybody surprised?

[innerweb]

My greatest fear is not what we are, but what we may yet become.

The slippery slope gets more slippery the further along it you are.

We have nothing to fear, but fear itself, and fear itself may be used to justify the end to the freedoms that we have left, as it has been used as a justification to limit/end the freedoms it already has.

InnerWeb

Re:Anybody surprised?

[MightyMartian]

That may be true (although a quick review of American history shows other points where the Administration have done things that some saw as distinctly unconstitutional (ie. the slavery issue and Lincoln's election and subsequent actions posed an interesting question for the Republic, and States Rights as it had been understood prior to the Civil War were pretty much dead and buried by its conclusion).

The fact remains that, despite the abuses, the United States is by an incredibly wide margin a freer society than what one will find in Russia. Congress may have been willing, while dominated by Republicans, to go along with the Administration (though even before the mid-terms, the Republican party had really ceased to be all that compliant, if for no other reason than self-serving survival), but SCOTUS has not given Bush an entirely free ride, and by and large, the checks and balances that the Founding Fathers installed during bootstrapping are still functioning to this day.

The very fact that Bush won't be running again, and won't be in a position to dictate policy even from some other branch of government come January 2009 is highly suggestive that American democracy, for the most part, is still functioning rather well. You won't find the shenanigans that Putin is playing in Russia going on the US as the next presidential elections approach. Bush won't be musing "Well, maybe I'll be running for Congress..." with the heavy suggestion that he'll still be running the ship of state with a new title. That's precisely how things work in China, and the direction that Russia seems headed, with Putin remaining at the helm via a puppet president while he fashions himself Prime Minister.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[rtb61]

The reality to that is of course, since when in any country are the rich and greedy not seeking exactly that. They want complete freedom to lie cheat and steal, and then they want complete power to control every one else.

So whether it be Russia, USA or China, it really makes not difference. Democracy is the means by which they are controlled ie, caught, prosecuted and imprisoned for their basic inherent corruption (it's just a default part of the psychological make up, the only moral limit to their actions is getting caught).

Democracy takes time and effort, in fact generations to obtain and get it to run smoothly and yet, a few greedy shit heels can quite readily stuff in up in a few years.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seattle is probably the city closest politically to Moscow.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me think about this one.....

Re:Anybody surprised?

[megaditto]

Well hung.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[tarpy]

Ad absurdum "In Soviet Rusia jokes"... because thats where they're headed back to.

In Soviet Russia, software pirates you!

Re:Anybody surprised?

[S3D]

How anyone could find this post "interesting" boggle my mind. Author have no clue what he/she/it is talking about. GRU is not KGB now. GRU is Soviet/Russian military intelligence. It's was created in 1918. Modern name for KGB is FSB. Of cause you can not expect much from the person whose the only source of knowledge about modern Russia is Anatoliy Golitsyn, pal of Jeffrey Nyquist, who think that Free Democracies of the West Should Nuke Russia.

Re:Anybody surprised?

[dpastern]

And who is going to stop the USSR if it aggressively invades those countries that don't want to 'come back to the fold'? Their economy is already screwed, any sanctions would just hurt the already poor people. The rich will always stay rich, no matter what sanctions are in place. Look at Saddam Hussein as an example. Would the US send troops into these countries to help them? No way - no oil, no financial incentive to do so. Plus, the USSR has nukes, and Putin wouldn't be afraid to use them I suspect. No major country would be foolish enough to interfere with the USSR illegally invading sovereign countries, the USSR is simply too large to fool with, even now. I suspect Ms Rice and others know this, and they're concerned. I also suspect that this is why the US wants to wipe out Iraq, Iran, Syria and Palestine, with Israel's illegal help, so that it has a powerbase in the middle east, close to the USSR. It also is strategic in stopping the USSR from taking the middle east first. Think about it - whilst some of what I've said may sound silly, deep down, it's more than likely highly accurate.

Dave

Kind of funny

[TheMeuge]

It's pretty funny that they're using this particular excuse to persecute political opposition. So I guess that's what how far they've come in the last 50 years - from malicious prosecution under the guise of national security, to malicious prosecution under the guise of protection against piracy.

Well... at least they're not being cliché.

Re:Kind of funny

[NeutronCowboy]

Actually, what they have learned is to turn the West's (particularly the US) propaganda machine against itself. Quite brilliant, I have to admit. Anybody who underestimates Putin with respect to his goals and his determination is a fool (this means you, Shrubby).

Re:Kind of funny

[adminstring]

It seems that you have tried to use the character &#233, otherwise known as "Freedom E." Freedom E has been blocked by the national censorship proxy server in order to protect children from terrorists. If you persist in attempting to use this character, you will be sent to Guantanamo for re-education regarding which Extended ASCII characters conform to the President's English, namely &#153, &#169, &#174, and, especially important during the holiday season, &#134. Good day :-).

Re:Kind of funny

[ioshhdflwuegfh]

It's pretty funny that they're using this particular excuse to persecute political opposition. So I guess that's what how far they've come in the last 50 years - from malicious prosecution under the guise of national security, to malicious prosecution under the guise of protection against piracy. It's kind of funny, or perhaps sad, that you conflate the ultra-totalitarian regime of the commie regime with this kind of political prosecutions under the pretense of enforcing the IP rights.

Re: Kind of funny

[Dolda2000]

You know, I had to think about it quite a while to figure out how the Unicode extended control characters "START OF SELECTED AREA" () and the unmarked control character U+0099 ((TM)) were related to your joke, until I tried to decode their byte values with the Windows CP1252 character set. While I might think that using the Windows character set goes well in line with your joke, it was quite some bit of work to find out what they really meant.

For anyone else left wondering, codepoint 134 in CP1252 is U+2020 and 153 is U+2122. I would, however, suggest using U+271D instead of U+2020.

In Soviet Russia..

[KazerSoza]

In Soviet Russia the software pirates you!

Re:In Soviet Russia..

[KudyardRipling]

What happens there shall become a handbook for what happens here.

In Amerika, property owns YOU!

In Soviet Russia...

[dave562]

...political pirates pwn j00. Yarrr!!!!!

Smart

[faloi]

As pointed out in the article, they're killing two birds with one stone. They get to appear more pro-active against piracy after all the requests from Western governments to try to stop piracy, and they get to silence critics. Criticism from Western governments could be met with appeals for funding if they want them to come up with a better way to stop piracy. Speaking of money, there might be some money changing hands from major software vendors to support anti-piracy measures.

Re:Smart

[Anonymous Coward]

/sigh

I never wonder why communism turns into dictatorship - there are just too many ways for greedy/corrupt bastards to justify dominating the reality of the people and, as Noam Chompsky said so long ago, "manufacturing their consent". At least in democratic nations our reality is dominated by a whole swath of idiots, elected by another plethora of idiots who don't pay enough attention to whom they are voting for (playing the "party politics game", rather than electing the local candidates they may actually give a damn - as intended by our political systems...). Anyhow, at least in North America it's our own fault, but the Russians never really had a chance to free themselves as we did and now, well, we get to hear about stories like this. Yay.

Re:Smart

[timeOday]

Unfortunately selective enforcement is nefarious because it's so hard to prove. Just as a black person here in the US.

Re:Smart

[elrous0]

Headline tommorrow "Notorious Software Pirate Benazir Bhutto Arrested in Pakistan."

Re:Smart

[n dot l]

Speaking of money, there might be some money changing hands from major software vendors to support anti-piracy measures. Heh. I can see the headlines now: "Microsoft Funding Gulag", shortly followed by "China Opens Laogai System to Foreign Investment". Cue the flying chair jokes...

Re:Smart

[ioshhdflwuegfh]

As pointed out in the article, they're killing two birds with one stone. They get to appear more pro-active against piracy after all the requests from Western governments to try to stop piracy, and they get to silence critics. Yes, I think you got that right

Criticism from Western governments could be met with appeals for funding if they want them to come up with a better way to stop piracy. Speaking of money, there might be some money changing hands from major software vendors to support anti-piracy measures. How about some corporations waiving their IP rights in order to help the democratization process in Russia?

Denial of Service by Terms of Service

[Speare]

When I was working on a MMORPG years ago, this sort of behavior was a worry. It was a much smaller, less consequential worry, but it was there. Player A would call the company, and whine to mommy that Player B was breaking the rules. We had to be careful about policies so we didn't just disable Player B prematurely during the investigation, or it would become a new dynamic in the game. Want to invade a guild hall? Make sure their best players are disabled due to investigations.

It didn't catch on, but at the time I called this a DOS by TOS: a denial of service by (ab)using the terms of service; the terms of service can be a weapon if the environment is competitive enough.

Re:Denial of Service by Terms of Service

[cliffski]

surely that only works once though? player A can only cry wolf once before he loses credibility?
personally, I'm so sick of software piracy that I don't really care if it represents infighting in the russian corporate elite. as long as they do something about the blatmnt software piracy from that country. many big companies i know who sell online entirely blacklist the country by IP because of the extent of fraud and piracy from there.

Re:Denial of Service by Terms of Service

[evann]

Within the ranks of AOL staff, accounts which had overhead abilities could suspend other accounts. These suspended accounts then have to call AOL and talk about the infraction, hear the warning or whatever, and then they get the account back.

Phishing and trojans back in the days I am talking about..(95-2000? maybe they have the same setup) were pretty easy to pull off. You could easily get the password for one of these accounts and go ahead and start suspending many other accounts. There was even a hierarchy of these accounts, some had more banning power than others (and could terminate other overhead accounts). The phrase used when one person terminated another was called a TOS.

Two things came of all this, the AO-underworld would start killing off eachother's accounts in mass. You can't call AOL to get an account reactivated which you created from phished credit cards. The second, a lot of people claiming they didn't break the TOS when they got TOS'd, and AOL laxing it's punishments.

Player A just uses multiple accounts to complain. Player B eventually gets terminated. OR the staff will have to start letting people off the hook because they just don't know the truth.

it sure doesn't help all these soviet jokes...

[Bananatree3]

The suggestive powers of all the thousands of "in soviet russia" jokes are now taking their toll. Now see what you've done, Slashdot? You've brought back the Iron Curtain! All hilarity aside, this is not a good trend at all. It started good in the 90's, but I'm not like this trend

Re:it sure doesn't help all these soviet jokes...

[Anonymous Coward]

In Soviet Russia, this trend doesn't like you!

In Russia...

[He-Ja]

In Russia there always is a twist... face the facts

Article is a flamebait.

[padonak]

At the risk of gaining a few more /. "freaks", I have to point out that this post is just on of the many recent submissions by reporter, most of which are simply anti-russian FUD.
He even expressed his desire to have a dedicated anti-russian section here.
While bashing a Cold War enemy is certainly fun, I don't see much "news for nerds" here. Keep /. politics focused on U.S., please.

Re:Article is a flamebait.

[Rob T Firefly]

The piracy angle would make this /.-worthy whatever country it was.

Re:Article is a flamebait.

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do you think that the Washington Post article is FUD?
And why do I find it amusing that you are attempting to silence someone who is concerned about people being silenced?

Re:Article is a flamebait.

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe you are correct. Anti-Russian FUD is the primary staple of Western journalism on Russian issues. That many of these so-called "free press" establishments were themselves highly anti-Russian (for those of you not familiar: that means against Russians, not against Russian government), in some instances blatantly fascistic, and were being funded through suspicious sources (read: large donations from outside the country by unidentified sources) none of these factors seem to matter. What matters is that the Evil Russian Government (tm) is doing "something". Again.

To reiterate: this is more anti-Russian FUD. Move along.

Re:Article is a flamebait.

[Clandestine_Blaze]

While bashing a Cold War enemy is certainly fun, I don't see much "news for nerds" here. Keep /. politics focused on U.S., please. Wait, are you against FUD in general, or are you against FUD only when it applies to topics related to Russia? We cannot simply replace one "FUD" with another. (Emphasis placed as I am not claiming that the topic is FUD.)

The topic of the submission was "Russian Software Piracy Crackdown Restricts Free Speech". Again, emphasis mine. If we get rid of this article on the grounds that it is not news-for-nerds, then we might as well dismiss every article ever posted on /. that is related to the RIAA, MPAA, P2P, and File sharing.

Also, Slashdot has a worldwide readership. It would be a folly to filter out every topic that does not relate to the U.S. Regardless how how you may feel about the foreign news, worldwide political events will affect people in the States as much as anywhere else. For instance, there are plenty of foreign companies that do business in Russia. If any one of them ever use their position as a pulpit to disagree with the Kremlin, then they too may get a knock at the door for software piracy.

Lastly, you claim this article is FUD, as you say everything Reporter posts is. I don't see anywhere in your post your rebuttals or WHY you claim that it is FUD. I even read the original Washington Post article that this post linked to, and it seems pretty clear that Russia is only selectively enforcing copyright laws against organizations that have spoken out against the government.

That's not anti-Russian FUD, it's reality! Please explain to us why it is FUD. And saying "Because it is anti-Russian" doesn't cut it.

Re:Article is a flamebait.

[Sciros]

FUD? Hahaha please! Fear maybe, Uncertainty no way, Doubt no how. This is Russia we're talking about. And I can't believe that in providing a link to reporter's past comment you dwell on his saying there's enough bad stuff going on in Russia to warrant a separate news section for it, disregarding the focus of the comment which was to tell of a specific human rights violation the Russian government was guilty of.

Basically you are trolling.

Re:Article is a flamebait.

[padonak]

Why do you think that the Washington Post article is FUD? Because WP don't actually read russian news, they just repeat what the "human rights groups" tell them. Never mind the fact that every month the police confiscates thousands of CDs on the streets, when they target the "free press", then they report it.

And why do I find it amusing that you are attempting to silence someone who is concerned about people being silenced? I don't know why do you (an AC) find it amusing. The guy who uses the terms "Russian fascism", "Russian beast", etc. is not concerned about anything, he just spreads the Red Scare again.

Re:Article is a flamebait.

[padonak]

Ha.
This is Russia we're talking about.
So does this automatically gives justification to putting bullshit on the front page?
disregarding the focus of the comment which was to tell of a specific human rights violation the Russian government was guilty of
It seems that EVERYTHING the guy posts is related to "human rights violations" in Russia. I'm just pointing out that he floods the site with political news, part of which may be even true (but again, we only know about this from Washington Post), but are still irrelevant.
Trolling? Ok, I don't have much experience with it, but everybody has to start sometime :)

Re:Article is a flamebait.

[Sciros]

Well for starters folks have already replied to you pointing out that the Washington Post article *is* relevant to Slashdot since it regards software piracy. And the link you provided was to a comment, and those can be as irrelevant as anyone wishes. If they're too irrelevant, they get modded "Offtopic" anyway so you don't have to worry about it.

As for "putting bullshit on the front page," I suppose you can take that up with the Washington Post, heh. Either it's true or it's not, and the theme is software piracy so it's a legit topic for Slashdot.

If you want more stories you don't consider bullshit, then submit some. As it is you can find plenty of folks who appreciate any given submission and plenty who don't.

Re:Article is a flamebait.

[padonak]

Wait, are you against FUD in general, or are you against FUD only when it applies to topics related to Russia? I'm against FUD in general. I've hit the "200 friends/foes" limit because of this.

The topic of the submission was "Russian Software Piracy Crackdown Restricts Free Speech". Every couple of weeks there are articles in russian press about police raids and confiscations of counterfeit CDs. I don't see any of these news here on /. But when the "free press" (which BTW is just as corrupt and self-involved as the ones they bash) is concerned, suddenly there's an article in WP and a helpful submission of our own "reporter".

If any one of them ever use their position as a pulpit to disagree with the Kremlin, then they too may get a knock at the door for software piracy. No, they'll first get a visit from the Tax Police, you don't know much about business there.

Russia is only selectively enforcing copyright laws against organizations that have spoken out against the government Does the name "allofmp3.com" ring a bell? There are dosens of music sites and online libraries (with OCRed books) that were closed in the last five years, yet WP and this reporter guy don't talk much about it.

That's not anti-Russian FUD, it's reality! Please explain to us why it is FUD. And saying "Because it is anti-Russian" doesn't cut it. I chose to call a selective representation of reality "FUD". Just like most of us call "Get The Facts" site reports about Windows vs. Linux performance. The results of the benchmarks were real, it's the test conditions that were ...hmmm... uneven.

Re:Article is a flamebait.

[Clandestine_Blaze]

First of all, thanks for the response.

The topic of the submission was "Russian Software Piracy Crackdown Restricts Free Speech". Every couple of weeks there are articles in russian press about police raids and confiscations of counterfeit CDs. I don't see any of these news here on /. But when the "free press" (which BTW is just as corrupt and self-involved as the ones they bash) is concerned, suddenly there's an article in WP and a helpful submission of our own "reporter".

I'm not disagreeing with your point of view as you have every right to it as much as Reporter does. But that's all I was asking for - just an example as to why you felt that this article was FUD. And since you mentioned that other confiscations exist, I found a link that also makes the claim that thousands upon thousands of pirated materials are confiscated.

Millions of bootleg tapes, CDs and DVDs are being sold across Russia

Q: The authorities regularly report on yet another successful operation against the illegal manufacture and sale of audio and video materials. About 21 thousand tapes and videodisks were confiscated late January in St. Petersburg. Still, the pirates play their game. Can you tell us why the situation remains unchanged?

A: As far as I am concerned, the authorities talk a lot, but do too little. The police can shut down a wholesale warehouse stacked with illicit products but it is likely to be back in business one day after. Provided that payoffs are paid on time. You can even get back two-thirds of your stuff that was confiscated if you pay them an extra. Various police departments are supposed to combat the sale of pirated CDs and DVDs in Veliky Novgorod. Every time they would launch their "surprise" raids on the retail market, as a rule they do it once a year at the end of summer, we would be fully prepared to see them. A maximum fee for selling counterfeit products at retail is 4,000 rubles. My personal experience shows that the amount of fee can be subject to negotiation. Your punishment can be reduced to a warning if you are smart enough to offer some latest flick to an inspector you are dealing with.

Anyway...

I chose to call a selective representation of reality "FUD". Just like most of us call "Get The Facts" site reports about Windows vs. Linux performance. The results of the benchmarks were real, it's the test conditions that were ...hmmm... uneven. Okay, putting it in this light, I cannot fault your reasoning. To be fair, the Washington Post article did make a slight reference that crackdowns are happening everywhere:

Police have raided businesses that play no political role, but without the sustained effort directed toward groups that are critical of the Kremlin.

"It's cynical, but it's also very difficult for us to say anything," said one Western observer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly on the subject.

I still feel that the Russian government is using the piracy angle to stifle critics. It almost seems as if local merchants that sell pirated materials can get away with it much easier than those that run organizations that criticize the government. Still, while my feelings will differ with yours in this topic, I do appreciate your explanation as to why you felt it is FUD. It helps me understand a different angle that, as you point out, the Washington Post article did not properly explain.

Re:Article is a flamebait.

[Unlikely_Hero]

um...there are a load of slashdot readers who aren't from the U.S...so um...we should keep the politics section focused on the U.S. why?

Re:Article is a flamebait.

[yoprst]

The topic of the submission was "Russian Software Piracy Crackdown Restricts Free Speech"
Does it have to be about software? Or is mentioning "software" enough, even if the story involves no software at all? Russia nowdays is a pre-Magna Carta country. When the authorities want to do something to you (no matter what, murder included) they just do it. They also make up some semi-plausible grounds for that, to appear civilised to the outside world. So this time they used a software - don't be surprised to find out that prosecutors don't know what software is. It's like putting "jews eat christian babies" into "children and motherhood" section.

Re:Article is a flamebait.

[ioshhdflwuegfh]

I'm against FUD in general.[...]
I chose to call a selective representation of reality "FUD". That's all obviously very obvious stuff to you, I mean FUD like in fear-uncertainty-doubt. I just wonder where do you get non-selective representation of reality. Particularly about Russia. With Linux is easier:

Just like most of us call "Get The Facts" site reports about Windows vs. Linux performance. The results of the benchmarks were real, it's the test conditions that were ...hmmm... uneven. One can always run one's own benchmarks to get the facts right, and in my benchmarks Linux still smokes Windows big time.

Re:Article is a flamebait.

[shutdown -p now]

They aren't anti-Russian, they're anti-Putin. Let's not get to the level of insane Bushites who label any anti-Bush sentiment as anti-Americanism, shall we?

Wonder when they'll start to bait-and-switch

[SlipperHat]

1) Put together an organization that sells branded software for cheap
2) Record customer data in the invoice
3) Sell data to government
4) Close up shop
5) Government prosecutes customer for piracy
6) Customer uses invoice as evidence
7) Prosecution cites evidence that said organization does not exist
8) Customer goes to jail due to lack of evidence on their part
9) Profit!

Just don't try it on the Mafia.

yawn...

[Connie_Lingus]

communist leaders use random current events to purge enemies-of-the-state. really? i am sure stalin is turning over in his grave.

Re:yawn...

[NeutronCowboy]

You do realize that Russia is a federation, with the dominant party being fairly progressive, judging from its homepage.

However, this doesn't change the fact that Putin is an autocratic little bastard with lots of support by the general population. This is not a return to Stalinist ideology. This is a return to good old-fashioned tsarist imperialism and global power.

Re:yawn...

[Anonymous Coward]

communist leaders use random current events to purge enemies-of-the-state.

Communist leaders? What were you doing during the early 90s?

In this topic...

[Anonymous Coward]

...In Soviet Russia jokes write themselves.

Uuubunnntoooooo

[Anonymous Coward]

Ubuntu is my lover

Ubuntu is my lover...

[Anonymous Coward]

Ubuntu is my friend,
Free software lasts forever,
the friendship never ends!

Spice girls are awesome! Posting as AC obviously

Stop picking on Russia

[Orig_Club_Soda]

They opposed the Iraq War to maintain their grip on the regional oil market, fund North Korea's nukes, fund Iran's nukes... They are against George Bush. How can Russian government be in the wrong!?

Re:Stop picking on Russia

[Opportunist]

Just because you're against something that is wrong doesn't make you right. For reference, see our policy of destroying liberty to fight terrorism. Just because I'm against the former doesn't mean I'm for the latter. The world isn't black and white. Sometimes, it's just black and black.

In Soviet Russia...

[certain death]

Software Pirates YOU!

When you get potatoes make vodka

[metoc]

So when the USA starts using vague negative labels like pirates or terrorists, it is easy for foreign government to use them.

Standard political tactics, label people you don't like with them too.

Re:When you get potatoes make vodka

[nazzz]

By speaking WEB 2.0 it's called tagging. Tag as many enemies you like, if your friends (alias) tag them to, they wold be eliminated.

Re:When you get potatoes make vodka

[shutdown -p now]

Yes, and the USA reaction to 9/11 was a carte blanche to Putin to do anything he wants in Checnya. Just remind that the enemy are "terrorists", and hint at the potential links to al-Qaeda, and voila, the USa has a new ally in the War on Terror.

What's sad is that those claims eventually turned out to be self-fulfilling prophecies. With all moderate Chechen leaders killed in fighting, the religious extremist party got into power, and established real contacts with al-Qaeda and other foreign Islamic terrorist organisations. Under president Maskhadov, the official goal of the Chechen rebels was independence of the "Chechen Republic of Ichkeria"; now under "emir" Doku Umarov, it's the establishment of the Islamic "Caucasian Emirate", and worldwide Jihad against the infidels.

MOD UP

[Icarus1919]

I think this is decent information that /. deserves to see, if for no other reason then it's pertinent to submitter's motivation.

More Liberal Delusion

[Anonymous Coward]

"Ever since Gorbachev helped end the Cold War (and the USSR), the Russians have tried to fill a void left by that power vacuum."

        Gorby helped end the cold war, what? Are you on crack?

This is exactly the revisionist liberalism that is pervasive today, crack smoking liberal delusion depicting the soviets or russians, whatever they are calling themselves today as anything but adversarial.

      2 words for you liberal geek dopes, RONALD REAGAN

Re:More Liberal Delusion

[Anonymous Coward]

Gorbachev had in his power to end the cold war with a bang, had he wanted to. He was not the prime mover of the event, but he certainly did take a constructive role in the peaceful end of the cold war, which could reasonably be characterized as "helping" the process.

Re:More Liberal Delusion

[Anonymous Coward]

I think that's why quoted post wrote "helped" and not "caused". But hey, don't let something like "what they actually said" get in the way of your knee-jerk neo-con screed.

Re:More Liberal Delusion

[Anonymous Coward]

Please choose either 'crack smokers' or 'geeks', the two are mutually exclusive.

Re:More Liberal Delusion

[Unlikely_Hero]

You know I happen to agree with you in general that Ronald Reagan was instrumental in ending the cold war.
The way you couched this however, just makes you seem like a twit.
Yes the Soviet economic system was collapsing and the USSR would have failed eventually, but it could have been a lot uglier.
Reagan essentially called the bluff, and Gorbachev folded. It could have been a great deal worse.

However, when you start going into juvenile hyperbole with statements like "crack smoking liberal delusion" and "liberal geek dopes", you end up making those who agree with you that Ronald Reagan was instrumental in ending the cold war sound like uneducated fools.

Please either
A) learn to make cogent coherent arguments without resorting to hyperbole
or
B) GTFO

Re:More Liberal Delusion

[yoprst]

2 words for you liberal geek dopes, RONALD REAGAN
2 words for either liberals or conservatives: oil prices

Re:More Liberal Delusion

[Opportunist]

It's not easy for me to say something positive about Reagan, but this much is true. He managed to put enough pressure on the Soviets to keep up to give the system its final shove over the edge.

Gorby actually wanted to save the falling system. He wanted to reform it and revamp it to make it more productive and "continue the revolution". Gorbachev was a Communist and IIRC still is. But the people already had so much steam pent up that was trying to break free against the oppression that, when he gently lifted the lid, it was blown off.

Bad analogy, but it fits.

Re:More Liberal Delusion

[shutdown -p now]

Gorbachev was a Communist and IIRC still is.

No. Here's what he's doing today as a politician.

Re:More Liberal Delusion

[Catbeller]

The Soviet Union died because it drained its resources with a gigantic military machine; that was happening long before one senile mean-spirited old actor pretended to be President. What put the nail in their coffin was...

Afghanistan. You know, the place we pretend we're not occupying? They spent themselves to death trying to block the rise of.... wait for it... Islamic fundamentalism. Seems they were right, but the solution of shooting all the rebels didn't work out.

Would the Soviet Union had died if we hadn't drained the world's coffers fighting it for over fifty years (Hitler invaded to Stop Communism, and we kept it up after the Russians kicked his ass)... and is the capitalist-mafia-fascism that replaced it in Russia any better? We've bought Nazi Germany, only a wealthy, stable one. Are we any safer? Are the nukes gone? Is that polonium in your Earl Grey, Gospodin?

And the spirit of Reagan, his fake tax cuts with insane spending increases, is now finally coming home as our economy teeters, ready to take everyone with us. You can't pretend to be President, can't pretend to understand economics. And bills eventually need paying.

open source preferred

[Krishnoid]

This has been mentioned in the past by Patrick Ball (see second page) and others as an excuse for human rights violations and a need for human rights agencies or pretty much anyone to move to open source. They'll find some other excuse, sure, but hopefully every little bit of additional freedom helps.

Every Federal Law is an enemy of freedom

[tjstork]

Let the events in Russia be a lesson to those left wingers that would have the federal government impose socialism, and to those right wingers who would have the federal government impose religion.

Every federal law has to be viewed as a potential for enslavement, another excuse for a would be dictator to trounce freedom. Those who are afraid of the government while Bush is in office, or if Hillary or Obama were elected, need to really ask, why do we have to have a government that -anyone- is afraid of.

The best federal government is the one where it doesn't matter which political party runs it.

Re:Every Federal Law is an enemy of freedom

[Anonymous Coward]

The one that allows men to have young virgin wives of childbearing age?

Re:Every Federal Law is an enemy of freedom

[dvdeug]

The only reason the Russian government needs these laws as excuses is because other countries with strong federal governments are glaring at them. You don't need a complex system of federal law to shoot someone in the head and throw their body into the dumpster.

Furthermore, what difference does it make whether it's federal or not? Federal is an artifact of our system, and many people have been harassed by selective enforcement of purely local law.

Why do we have a government that anyone is afraid of? Because a government that no one was afraid of wouldn't be much of a government. Whether you enforce ten thousand laws, only ten commandments, or only "Thou shalt not murder", someone is going to be afraid that you're going to get annoyed at them for hacking their husband to death.

If you have but one law, murder, and that enforced at at a local level, there will still be people who are afraid of the government possibly selectively enforcing the law, perhaps on the innocent, perhaps only to be kingmaker among gangs and mobs. The only solution to this is making sure those creating and enforcing the law are behaving in a just manner, which, for all their failures, the current American government (along with those of western Europe and most of the first world) beats a lot of other governments, both currently in existence and historically.

Re:Every Federal Law is an enemy of freedom

[ioshhdflwuegfh]

The best federal government is the one where it doesn't matter which political party runs it. This sounds a lot to me like EU. Anyhow, if this were the goal, then what would have been the point of having parties, elections, and all the democracy jazz?

What worries me even more....

[Korveck]

...is that most Russians don't seem to care that their freedoms and rights are eroded away by Putin, as long as Motherland Russia's economy is looking strong.

Re:What worries me even more....

[Opportunist]

Berthold Brecht wrote in his Threepenny Opera "Erst kommt das Fressen, dann die Moral" (food comes first, morals later). When you're struggling on a daily base, you don't care too much about freedom.

That's what made Hitler possible in Germany (hi Godwin). That's also a general development you can observe whenever times get rough. In general, you'll notice two tendences. First of all, people will not care about freedom, environment or education. That's a "luxury" you start to ponder when you're fed and sheltered. And second, people will gyrate towards a "strong" leader. Someone who promises better times and some perspective, some hope and goal. A strong country is one of the easier ways to achive that. A strong country that you're part of is something you can be proud of and feel as some kind of accomplishment, even if you yourself aren't doing any better. But in total, it at least looks like things are getting better.

That's nothing specially Russian. That's simply human nature.

Re:What worries me even more....

[shutdown -p now]

Berthold Brecht wrote in his Threepenny Opera "Erst kommt das Fressen, dann die Moral" (food comes first, morals later). When you're struggling on a daily base, you don't care too much about freedom.

It's more interesting than that. The "common folk", for the most part, don't care that much about Putin - they are certainly not the ones to show "strong support" (unless forced to, i.e. for government workers: "Tomorrow we all go to a demonstration in support of the President; if you do not wish to go, you can hand in your resignation letter by noon"), nor serious opposition. Both active proponents and opponents of Putin's policies are mostly from the richer classes and intelligentsia.

Re:What worries me even more....

[shutdown -p now]

most Russians don't seem to care that their freedoms and rights are eroded away by Putin

We didn't really have that many, to be honest. Do you seriously think there was no political persecution in Yeltsin's time? There certainly is more of that now, but the precedent was set long before. We got rid of the symbols of Communist times, but the shackles were never truly discarded.

Re:What worries me even more....

[Opportunist]

Well, just like in most countries. The average Joe Worker doesn't care too much about politics. First of all, he has other day to day problems to care about, and second, he's used to being milked by whoever sits on the helm.

Who cares about politics, for very real monetary reasons rather than being manipulated and agitated by propaganda from various sides, are those that actually benefit from having the "right" politician in charge.

Whats propaganda and whats true?

[miffo.swe]

These days its very hard to know if even western media tells the truth. I really do not swallow things just because its in western media any more than i trust for your favourite state controlled press. So much of what has been reported by western media in later years have been refuted a bit later as just plain lies. The US govt seems hellbent on having as many enemies as possible and one way of ensuring that is to paint any adversery or competing country as evil. The reason they want enemies, or more exactly perceived enemies is for control and a blank check to do whatever to "protect" its citizens. The free western media is just a pawn in a game just as media in other countries, the difference is just in how the propaganda is inserted and controlled.

Re:Whats propaganda and whats true?

[Unlikely_Hero]

Maybe all that's left are primary sources. Perhaps trusting the media in general has now become impossible.
I think that would be a fabulous development, if people accessed primary sources more (or became primary sources) the world would have a great deal more informed opinions to choose from rather than the same old crap repeated endlessly.

US Piracy Crackdown Restricts Free Speech

[iamacat]

Books, music and movies play a huge role in defining popular culture and currently US government and big companies have a virtual monopoly on shaping it. Some day Michael Moore's film studio will receive a call from Homeland security office to remove his films from circulation as they help terrorists and communists by undermining war effort and encouraging americans to visit Cuba. With all popular formats - DVD, HD, digital downloads - now covered by DRM, there will be no legal way for supporters to continue spreading the message. Activists will be jailed for breaking DMCA to spread popular "free speech" and public will be assured that all our freedoms are safe. It's only that pretty much any speech can be considered a derivative work of something in popular culture and as such belongs to some big company. Oh yes, and all the land is privately owned as well and as such the owners can impose restrictions on the speech within. It's too bad your homeowner's association has a policy against controversial public speech on the premises.

Mod parent up.

[n dot l]

Seriously. This line alone deserves it:

The best federal government is the one where it doesn't matter which political party runs it.

free speech

[Anonymous Coward]

since when is there free speech in russia? free speech isn't a universal right... so it's kind of a dumb argument.

Microsoft Piracy Crackdown Restricts Free Speech

[AppleTwoGuru]

reporter writes: "According to a report recently filed by the Washington Post, Microsoft has finally begun to crackdown on software piracy ... with a twist. The Microsoft corporation is targeting political enemies with claims of piracy, including independent news media, political parties, and private advocacy groups. In particular, 'the newspaper the Wall Street Journal, one of the last outposts of critical journalism in the U.S.A., suspended publication of its regional edition in the Eastern city of New York on Monday after prosecutors opened a criminal case against its editor, alleging that his publication used unlicensed software (Open Office and the GIMP on Linux)'"

Remember the U.S. Federal Prosecutor Firings?

[jayveekay]

U.S. Federal Prosecutors serve "at the pleasure of the President". If he thinks that the prosecutors aren't investigating the opposition aggressively enough, he can fire them and appoint replacements who will. And it's all legal.

I'm not saying that two wrongs make a right, but those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. Y'all might want to take out a 0 point refi and upgrade to at least a wood frame... :)

Re:Remember the U.S. Federal Prosecutor Firings?

[MightyMartian]

This power has existed, in one form or another, since the Constitution was ratified. That Bush is willing to use it reflects badly on him, of course, but it's not as if he's stepping outside his Constitutional bounds. As it is, his Attorney General was ultimately forced out of office, and not purely by the opposing party's cries of foul (there were a number of Republicans who found Gonzales' antics distasteful as well). As well, while Congress does not have direct control over members of Cabinet, the fact is that the Senate does have a say in who ends up in Cabinet, so there is a check there.

I'm not trying to defend Bush here. I think he's an incredibly inept man, both from a policy point of view and just as equally from the point of view of a political manager. He's involved the US in a war which it will be forced to remain involved with for the forseeable future (thus saddling his successor, and probably his successor's successor). He has used the age-old cry of "public safety" to run rough-shod over liberties, but let's not pretend here that he is some sort of modern Mussolini.

In Soviet Russia...

[uselessengineer]

In Soviet Russia, Software Pirates You

Free Speech?

[nurb432]

This is Russia we are speaking about here, i dont believe this is a right that they currently have.

Mod Parent Up

[Anonymous Coward]

Do it mofo. What? I was talking about mozilla... o.o

is this an onion parody?

[wardk]

glad I wasn't drinking any milk, that's nasty coming back out your nose

50 years

[synthespian]

I predict it'll take a minimum of 50 years before Russia even starts resembling anything like a Western democracy. Right now, on can say they went from Stalinism to Putinism, and are practically a petrostate, with no hope of regaining the technological edge they had, because of their bandit-capitalistic ways.

Re:50 years

[MightyMartian]

predict it'll take a minimum of 50 years before Russia even starts resembling anything like a Western democracy. Right now, on can say they went from Stalinism to Putinism, and are practically a petrostate, with no hope of regaining the technological edge they had, because of their bandit-capitalistic ways.

I'm going to go out on a limb and state that I don't think Russia will ever be a liberal Western-style democracy. It won't be the quite the dictatorship that the USSR was, nor will it be quite as authoritarian as the Czarist regime, but it will ultimately remain a centrally-run autocratic regime with some of the trappings of democracy. I can't lay the blame on Putin so much as Yeltsin, who so thoroughly bungled the economic transition that a lot of Russians came to the conclusion that democracy wasn't all it was chalked up to be. Putin is giving the Russian people a familiar face; strong, authoritarian and dedicated to making Russia great. It's an incredibly common aspect of the Russian cultural motif; Peter the Great and Stalin are, to my mind, major inspirations for Putin.

Re:50 years

[ioshhdflwuegfh]

Putin is giving the Russian people a familiar face; strong, authoritarian and dedicated to making Russia great. You mean like in: Bush is giving the American people a familiar face: strong, authoritarian and dedicated to making America great.

Re:50 years

[MightyMartian]

And now has an approval rating rivaling Nixon in his final days as President, has his own party turning on him and has, through his actions, lost both houses of Congress.

I'm sorry, but I think you either have to be a mental retard or a liar to equate the two situations.

Re:50 years

[ioshhdflwuegfh]

And now has an approval rating rivaling Nixon in his final days as President, has his own party turning on him and has, through his actions, lost both houses of Congress. I'm with you here, it's just that it is a wee bit more complicated. I mean it took like 7 years or so of fucking shit up on a pretty big scale (and, in contradistinction to Nixon, riding on a neo-evangelical horse) to get to this point. Coincidentally, I've watched two documentaries on PBS's Frontline today: one is Cheney's Law which synopsis runs as:

For three decades Vice President Dick Cheney conducted a secretive, behind-closed-doors campaign to give the president virtually unlimited wartime power. Finally, in the aftermath of 9/11, the Justice Department and the White House made a number of controversial legal decisions. Orchestrated by Cheney and his lawyer David Addington, the department interpreted executive power in an expansive and extraordinary way, granting President George W. Bush the power to detain, interrogate, torture, wiretap and spy -- without congressional approval or judicial review. That's pretty heavy stuff right there, going from late Nixon's days to like right now.

The second one is Showdown with Iran, for which I think no synopsis is necessary. In epilogue of this one, some Iranian dude working on sorting things out between US and Iran says something along the lines that both sides are essentially religious fundamentalists on a grand scale. That's perhaps a problem to fathom for, say, Americans who do not see or believe in this Christian fundamentalism combined with American exceptionalism, but it's nonetheless still playing some role.

I'm sorry, but I think you either have to be a mental retard or a liar to equate the two situations. You mean equating Bush and Putin situations. Of course I'm not equating them, they are quite different. I was just responding to your underlying some kind of totalitarian tendency in Russians by somehow conflating tzar regime with communist regime with Putin's regime, which don't have that much in common. Actually, I was just trying to put it to you that the way you wrote about Putin's agenda is very easily translatable to something that looks like Bush's agenda, much easier in fact than looking for resurrection of communism in Russia, notwithstanding that Russia is far from democratic society.

Meme...I'm gonna live forever...

[skuzzlebutt]

In soviet russia, ...ah, fuck it.

MOD PARENT DOWN!

[Anonymous Coward]

This comment is a fucking flamebait! Misquoting doesn't help one bit. It's not anti-russian. It's called 'empathy'.

And slashdot shouldn't be too US centric. There's world beyond US borders, you know... padonak, you're a moron.

Their anti-piracy crack-down copied my government?

[RecycledElectrons]

The USA has allowed big corporations to target their enemies with phony DMCA take-down notices since 1998. Why should it surprise us that Russia is copying us? I'm shocked it took the guys in Red Square so long adopt Orin Hatch's tactics.

Andy Out!

Did anyone not see this coming?

[Unlikely_Hero]

OK....this is (Soviet) Russia...and Putin is the guy that keeps blathering on about Soviet Era "achievements", putting dissidents in mental institutions, having reporters and foreign nationals killed (we all know it).
So um...who's surprised about this?...
anybody?...anybody at all?
You in the back, you're surprised?
Oh...you were just stretching...
ok.
well I guess nobody's surprised.

Not to be a jackass to the people getting shafted by the Czar here, but if you switch to FOSS Putin can't level that shit against you.
Wait...actually he might try anyway.

The comment is a flamebait.

[Anonymous Coward]

The articles you mention are in no way FUD, and much less could one call them anti-Russian. They bring to attention actual events that are well-known in Russia. You must have been watching too much of Russia Today and other propaganda of the Russian government (ever heard of them hiring the Ketchum advertising agency "to improve the image of Russia abroad" at the taxpayer's expense?). Things in Russia are in reality quite different from what the government propaganda TV shows.

Am I Captain Obvious?

[Kyrka]

I would wonder:
If a:) the government has a full on stranglehold on the Internet in the former Soviet Union and
b:) there are notorious gangs of "really bad hackers(tm)" operating from there wouldn't it be safe
to c:) call out Putin on the bullshit as he's clearly in control, and sanctioning it, etc. ???

nope

[yoprst]

they'll just be sued for another made-up reason

Russian Agent in Our Mist

[Anonymous Coward]

There are a large number of bloggers who actually promote the Kremlin. Apparently, we have one such blogger in our midst at Slashdot.

This pro-Kremlin blogger belittles the human-rights groups in Russia. Then, he claims that the Kremlin is a really nice guy, not a beast.

Well, read the story of Larissa Arap, a human-rights activist. In 2007, the Kremlin imprisoned her in a psychiatric institution even though she was mentally competent. Then, some Kremlin thugs repeatedly beat her and injected hallucinogenic drugs into her. She endured this hell for 6 weeks. The Kremlin tried to kill her for her publishing critical comments about the state of Russian psychiatric wards.

This little fucking pro-Kremlin blogger says that the Kremlin is a nice guy.

I think not. The Kremlin is a Russian beast -- a total fucking animal.

We Westerners will not shut up about the shit that the Kremlin is doing to Chechens, Georgians, and -- yes -- even Russians.

We want the whole world to know about Larissa Arap. You little Kremlin fuckers hurt her for 6 weeks. Now, we will "hurt" the Kremlin by informing the whole world about Russian antics. Thank Buddha for an organization like "The Washington Post".

Where is money?

[Max_W]

I can't get it. We have got in Former Soviet Union tons of the Western agencies and NGOs supporting democracy development. They've got luxury offices, cars with drivers, expats in smart suits lurking around.

What? They could not bring a suitcase with some Home editions?

That is what I thought. Laundering money and tax evasions.

Russian Agent in Our Mist

[Anonymous Coward]

There are a large number of bloggers who actually promote the Kremlin. Apparently, we have one such blogger in our midst at Slashdot.

This pro-Kremlin blogger belittles the human-rights groups in Russia. Then, he claims that the Kremlin is a really nice guy, not a beast.

Well, read the story of Russian riot police beating the crap out of human-rights advocates. In 2007 April, peaceful protestors gathered in Moscow and St. Petersburg. The OMON (the Russian riot police) attacked them. "The OMON beat everybody nearby, including journalists, with truncheons and fists. And they arrested people indiscriminately, among them the man with the flowers, a group of transvestites and even a small boy. ... A small peaceful group was intercepted by the OMON. An old man tried to save an old woman from arrest; a dozen club-wielding men viciously attacked both. ... Supporters and journalists who gathered outside the police station were beaten again. ... hundreds were arrested and dozens hospitalised."

This little fucking pro-Kremlin blogger says that the Kremlin is a nice guy.

I think not. The Kremlin is a Russian beast -- a total fucking animal.

We Westerners will not shut up about the shit that the Kremlin is doing to Chechens, Georgians, and -- yes -- even Russians.

We want the whole world to know about the utter brutality of the Kremlin. Thank Buddha for an organization like "The Economist".

Re: Extended ASCII character sets

[adminstring]

Sorry about the character-set confusion. here is an extended ASCII chart of the type I was referring to in GP. There are other possible sets, such as the IBM PC set, which many of us probably fondly remember as the graphics blocks from the great 1980s adventure game Rogue. Ahh, memories!

It is absolutely true

[cyberborean]

Sure, in the country where 90% of software is cracked and 90% of its users are simply unaware that it is a crime, the officials found that effective instrument of repression. Linux? I don't think it would help. In Russia, legal software is a purchased software, so you would be found guilty if you cannot show the cheques, original packs or somehow prove the fact you bought the software (read about the case of charging the school teacher Ponosov). Moreover, Russian copyright laws have no idea that something like copyleft is possible in the world.

Re:It is absolutely true

[Max_W]

There is an excellent Linux distribution in Russia. It costs peanuts http://www.asplinux.ru/

Re:It is absolutely true

[cyberborean]

Yeah, but you would agree the situation is idiotic: I have to buy linux in a shop to have an original box of it but I cannot download the same linux with the same GPL license from internet. And it is unclear how GPL fits the Russian laws. I suppose that MS EULA is only kind of license the authorities are known of.

Re:It is absolutely true

[Max_W]

I do not know about Russia. I live in Ukraine for a while. No problem with a downloaded Linux. With pirated Windows - there is a problem. The same about Photoshop. But no problem with GIMP. They sort of know about it. That it is free.

Re:It is absolutely true

[cyberborean]

I don't know exactly. I can only guess on analogy with Ponosov's case who had been found guilty only because of the fact he had no payment documents, original boxes and other stuff to prove the Windozes in his school were legally purchased. They have not proved (and even have not tried) the fact that his Windozes were really cracked. Download open source is not a problem too, but as in Ponosov case, at any moment it can be turned against you. I myself working on Linux and other OSS I download from the web, but I am not an opposite politician or journalist. If I would be one, I probably would think about my safety from this side and got a heap of papers and packing boxes to show I've bought everything :)

Y.I.C.

[LandruBek]

You forgot, "you insensitive clod!"

(or perhaps "nechuvstvyushniy chainik!")