Russia cracks down on piracy: targets well-meaning teacher

Piracy charges have been dropped against a 40-year-old Russian school principal who purchased 12 computers, found to contain pirate software, for his school. The judge ruling on the case, Vera Barakina, said the value of the pirate software is ”insignificant” when compared to Microsoft’s annual revenue.Alexander Ponosov faced up to five years in prison and a fine of around US$10,000. Ponosov maintained that he purchased the computers with the software preinstalled and did not know that the software was pirated.

Russia’s president Vladimir Putin called the case “utter nonsense.”

Former Russian president Mikhail Gorbachev wrote to Bill Gates asking him to intervene in the matter on the basis that the case against Ponosov was unjustified, and because Ponosov was a life-long teacher who worked for a modest salery.

Responding to Gorbachev’s letter, Microsoft said it generally opposed going after teachers for software piracy:

“Our interest is not in prosecuting schools or teachers, it is in helping students develop the technology skills they need in the 21st century,” Microsoft said in a statement to Bloomberg.

The charges were dropped due to lack of evidence, though state prosecutors may appeal Barakina’s decision.

The first problem with this case is that Russian prosecutors targeted the wrong man.

Irrespective of whether Ponosov was actually guilty of installing the software on the computers, the man is a career teacher, trying to do the best he can for he students. Targeting a teacher, to make an example of them, and to show the world that Russia is clamping down on piracy, is pretty idiotic, and does not make for good PR.

Given that pirate music, movies and software is easy to obtain, how hard would it have been for prosecutors to find someone who actually makes money out of piracy?

The second problem is that now that the judge has thrown out this case, she sends a message to the world that piracy is sometimes OK in Russia, especially when its victim is a hugely successful company like Microsoft.

However, the botched handling of this particular case means that the issue is no closer to being addressed.

Ar mai trebui sa citesti si ...

• No related posts.