Slashdot Mirror
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.
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.
In Soviet Russia the software pirates you!
Two wrongs don't make a right - but two do's make a dodo
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.
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." -Albert Einstein
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.
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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. /. politics focused on U.S., please.
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
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.
This is my sig.
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.
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.
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ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
It seems that you have tried to use the character é, 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 ™, ©, ®, and, especially important during the holiday season, †. Good day :-).
My truck is like a series of tubes.