Teacher Avoids Getting Sent to Siberia For Piracy

Piracy Support Line writes "Russian principal Alexander Ponosov will not be visiting Siberia any time soon, at least not for the allegedly illegal Microsoft software that were preloaded on the computers they bought and Microsoft supported the reseller's story. Although Bill Gates rejected Mikhail Gorbachev's personal appeal for mercy on behalf of the teacher, the judge was kinder. Judge Elvira Mosheva decided to dismiss the case because 'Microsoft's financial damage is too insignificant for a criminal investigation.'"

What did you expect?

[Creepy Crawler]

Lemee see....

1: Administrator buys what he thinks is a legit copy. It isnt.
2: Gorbachev AND Gates are tossing words around. Erm, HOLY SHIT. Big names in each corner.
3: Russia already has warned any researcher in coming to the USA (dmitri skylarov vs adobe)
4: Do we trust a US company or open source that anybody can review? China already supports Red Flag Linux.
5: Putin came out in defense of the administrator. What he says, goes.

Need we say more? The cards are stacked against MS. They back off, and then they go "soft" on copyright violations, but they are the big bullies if they do go ahead.

Microsoft not involved

[The Bungi]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1700AP_APFN _Russia_Piracy_Microsoft_CORRECTIVE.html [nwsource.com]

Nice FUD job though. Gotta get those ad impressions going.

I enjoyed Putins comment

[Aussie]

Russian President Vladimir Putin said: "Catching someone just because he bought a computer and threatening him with prison - that's crap."

Link [news.com.au]

No, but a teacher faces jail time due to malware.

[Kris_J]

"The Connecticut substitute school teacher who exposed 11 and 12-year-old students to porn in the classroom -- unintentionally, she says, because of malware on an infected PC -- may now go to jail. If her claims are true, she'll be the first American ever jailed for having had the misfortune of being forced to use a buggy school computer, with incompetent or nonexistent tech support from that school's administration despite repeated requests for help." -- Teacher faces jail time over "accidental porn" in classroom. [boingboing.net]

it is not "odd", but basic law

[Anonymous Coward]

Normally a small damage amount is not grounds for bringing a CRIMINAL case against a person. Rather, the matter would have to be pursued via CIVIL law. And that would mean Microsoft would have to sue the person directly, not get the state to go after them.

Microsoft has subverted the laws of the world and made minor acts of copyright infringement into criminal acts. This way Microsoft gets the taxpayer to fund a massive witch hunt against people, mostly good, who have done little wrong. And in the great scheme of things, minor copyright infringement is among the world's least important problems.

The way Microsoft has turned the government against the people is a good example of how rotten the company is -- and how Microsoft will stop at nothing to corrupt and destroy the world.

Re:Microsoft not involved

[Rycross]

Except according to the link, Microsoft had nothing to do with the lawsuit.

Microsoft has had no role the charges against Ponosov and had even turned down the opportunity of joining the lawsuit, company spokeswoman Olga Dergunova said in a statement.

"In general, we do not believe that a case of this kind warrants criminal prosecution, given the very small number of computers involved, and the fact that the computers were purchased for use by students," she said in the company's latest statement Monday.

Even Ponosov said he does not blame Microsoft for the prosecutors' attention.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1700AP_APFN _Russia_Piracy_Microsoft_CORRECTIVE.html/ [nwsource.com]

But Olga Dergunova, chairman of Microsoft Russia, said: "This case was initiated by Russian authorities under Russian law.

"We did have the option in this case to take up civil action, but decided last year not to do so."

Mr Ponosov told the BBC that Russian prosecutors had brought the case against him and he was unaware of any Microsoft claim against him.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6332441.stm/ [bbc.co.uk]

Gates couldn't lay off their lawsuit because they didn't have a lawsuit against the man.

Re:Odd...

[kfg]

That's a rather strange reason to dismiss a case, as it violates the letter of the law.

If this were a theft you would be correct. It is not. It's a copyright violation; where intent to distribute/a dollar threshold determines whether the case is criminal or merely a civil matter.

What the judge is saying is that based on the evidence it is unlikely that a crime has actually been commited by the accused and thus it is not worth putting the governement to the time and expense of an investigation to support a criminal proceeding.

Bear in mind that the prosecution had, at the time of the hearing, dropped the accusation that he had himself "pirated" the software and instead he was merely accused of using it for a week.

Making this sort of judgement is part of the job of judge; and why we call them "judges."

KFG

Re:..Avoids Getting Sent to Siberia ? He lives the

[b0s0z0ku]

Where do they deport the inhabitants of Siberia when they are found guilty in a court of law?

Well, under the Soviets, there were basically three classes of people in Siberia.
(1) Convicts in prison camps. Basically like the chain gangs in the Southern US in the 1930s, except a hell of a lot worse. The convicts in turn were divided into politicals and ordinary criminals, the latter often being given positions as trusties in the camps, and lording it over the politicals.
(2) People released from prison or deported. Usually tied to a Siberian town or village and not able to live in any Russian city or in European Russia for a certain number of years.
(3) Free people. People whose families either lived there for generations, or people lured by the promise of higher wages, patriotic Komsomol fervor, etc to work in Siberia. Also some native tribes, similar to Inuit in Alaska and northern Canada.

-b.