Russian Piracy Ruling Overturned
A Russian schoolteacher is being forced to stand trial on charges he pirated software for a second time, as a regional court overturned an earlier ruling that had dismissed the charges against him.
The initial case drew the attention of former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who wrote an open letter to Bill Gates to ask that he show the defendant mercy. However, Microsoft responded and said they had nothing to do with the case, and it was later thrown out.
Microsoft further said that it was invited to file a civil suit against the man last year, however it declined.
Alexander Ponosov was accused of installing pirated software on computers at a school he runs in Perm, a small town in the Ural Mountains in western Russia. He claims he did not know the software was pirated.
Why the higher court overturned the local courts ruling is unclear. Although the company has been under pressure to get piracy under control in order to join the World Trade Organization, the case even lacks support from the Russian government.
President Vladmir Putin has said that the manufacturers of pirated software should be the target of legal action - not the consumer.