RSSRussian MS Software Piracy Case Thrown Out
By Ed Oswald | Published February 15, 2007, 12:30 PM
A highly publicized piracy case against a schoolteacher in Russia was dismissed on Thursday, with a Russian District Court saying the case against the man was "trivial."
Alexandar Ponosov's plight was high profile enough to move former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to step in and plead with Microsoft founder Bill Gates to intercede on behalf of the man, saying he did not know he was committing a crime.
However, Microsoft responded by saying that it had no intention of making a civil case against Ponosov, adding the Russian prosecutors office initiated the court case. Gorbachev later said he was satisfied with Microsoft's response.
Even Russian president Vladmir Putin disagreed with prosecutor's actions, noting that manufacturers of pirated discs should be targeted, and not consumer.
Ponosov claims that the computers he bought for the school he managed came with the pirated software already installed, but prosecutors argued that he had knowledge that the software was illegitimate.
The prosecutor had claimed that Ponosov caused up to 267,000 rubles ($10,000 USD) in damages. However, he instead asked for a 3,000 ruble fine, equivalent to $110 USD, in lieu of the standard prison term.
When asked for his reaction to the judgment by the Associated Press, Ponosov replied, "We're off to drink champagne now...Of course it was trivial."
Neither Microsoft nor the prosecutor involved in the case were available for comment.
"When asked for his reaction to the judgment by the Associated Press, Ponosov replied, "We're off to drink champagne now...Of course it was trivial"
WRONG!!!
Ponosov is actually very unhappy with the fact that case is dismissed due to "insignificance" instead of him being acuited of charges and declared not guilty. and it is not the end of the case yet.
but how the good journalists say "why let truth ruin therwise good story?". way to go Ed Oswald you are growing to be a real journalist. makes me sick...
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|Seriously, do you guys have an open position for a proofreader? (greater than/less than symbols don't work either! Fiddlesticks!)
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|[/i][/i][/i][/i]
dammit.
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|In the USA grandmothers who never owned a computer are being sued for thousands of dollars for supposedly downloading a song or two by the Record Industry.
Its ironic to me as someone who served in the US Armed Forces at the hight of the Cold War that a common sense legal system that protects citizens that are falsely accused as criminals by big business with big bucks has to come from Russia and not the United States.
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|Name these grandmothers you speak of.
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|The RIAA claimed that 83-year old Gertrude Walton shared over 700 pop, rap and rock songs on a P2P network, using smittenedkitten as her nickname. What the RIAA didn't know, is that this woman died in December 2004.
Named one. :p
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|why ironic? United States never had common cense anywhere near it's justice system, we are to busy protecting stupid people from themselves.
russian system on the other part is very cold and almost emotionless - they will not accept any stupid cases like someone suing mcdonalds for burning himself with hot coffe or like this one. resently there were couple instances where people tried to pull a "USA idiot suing big buck company for his own stupidity" cases into russian courts. they were thrown out on the spot and later rediculed by media like you would not believe. those people became the joke of nation.
so i don't see anything ironic about that case being dismissed, and i believe it should have been dismissed even though i'm 100% sure there was piracy involved.
and BTW i live in US,
regards
Anton
Chicago
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|I need to make friends at high places.
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|Typical case for our country. Local authorities sued first "pirate" they found, trying to please The Top (they got piracy-fighting directive from The Top). But since Microsoft isn't interested in ruining it's own reputation (by chasing poor men) and The Top understands that there's nothing good in sueing this particular men, this case was thrown out. I bet local authorities will get it in the neck for this case ;)
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|Ed seems to be having trouble closing tags lately....[/i]
$110 for purchasing illegal goods?
Not too bad.
I agree that while they should definitely go after the distributors, I would like to point out that this should in no way excuse consumers from liability.
Caveat Emptor?
Responsibility lies with both parties. I would not have been disappointed to see him get the fine. Jail would be a bit much, though.
Perhaps even greater leniency if he were to provide information that lead to the rounding up of the distributors.
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|Meh. I agree with the ruling. Some people really are ignorant about licensing, etc. Heck, hardly anyone in the CS department at my school (university) have any clue about how it works.
The distributors are the jerks responsible for this guy even having to worry about court.
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|And not that I disagree with this case, this is why Russia gets a bad rap.
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|I am glad for Alexandar Ponosov.
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