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Russian Software Piracy Crackdown Restricts Free Speech
Posted by
Zonk
on Wed Nov 14, 2007 03:44 PM
from the amazing-coincidence dept.
from the amazing-coincidence dept.
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.
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Technology: The Kremlin Tightens Its Grip on the Internet 280 comments
reporter writes "According to a report just published by "The Washington Post", the percentage of Russian adults having access to the Internet has risen from 8% in 2002 to 25% in 2007. This growth has attracted the attention of the Kremlin. Its allies are creating pro-Kremlin web sites and are purchasing web sites known for high-quality independent journalism. Pro-Kremlin bloggers have used their skills to bury news about anti-Kremlin demonstrations: at Russian news portals, web links to news about pro-Kremlin rallies consistently rank higher than web links to news about anti-Kremlin demonstrations.
The most disturbing development is that the Kremlin intends to develop a Russian Internet which is separate from the global Internet. Russian officials are studying the techniques that the Chinese use to censor the Internet."
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Oh no!!! (Score:3, Funny)
great (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
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 (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re:great (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Parent
Re:great (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Parent
Re:great (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Parent
Re:great (Score:4, Interesting)
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.
Parent
Anybody surprised? (Score:5, Interesting)
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? (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
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? (Score:5, Informative)
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".
Parent
Re:Anybody surprised? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Parent
Kind of funny (Score:4, Insightful)
Well... at least they're not being cliché.
Re:Kind of funny (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
In Soviet Russia.. (Score:4, Funny)
Smart (Score:5, Insightful)
Denial of Service by Terms of Service (Score:5, Insightful)
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: (Score:3, Interesting)
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 hierar
it sure doesn't help all these soviet jokes... (Score:4, Funny)
Article is a flamebait. (Score:5, Informative)
He even expressed [slashdot.org] 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
Re:Article is a flamebait. (Score:5, Insightful)
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
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 [slashdot.org] 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.
Parent
Stop picking on Russia (Score:3, Funny)
When you get potatoes make vodka (Score:3, Interesting)
Standard political tactics, label people you don't like with them too.
Every Federal Law is an enemy of freedom (Score:5, Insightful)
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.