5 Years in Siberia

[Spokesperson 0]

http://www.federalnewsradio.com/index.php/www.pearlharborstories.org?nid=84&pid=&sid=1063849&page=1

A Russian teacher got 5 years in a siberian prison camp after he installed unlicensed versions of Windows on 12 school computers in a village in the Urals.

Let's blame "communism"! Wait! Why not blame market-liberalism?

[redpride 0]

It's a sick corporate world emerging where money and profit stand higher than ethical and moral values. A taste of things to come in a globalized future.

[-ZG-BUZZARD 0]

I'll blame that on the lack of sensitivity on behalf of the russian authorities, which should have provided the software themselves!!!

[Spokesperson 0]

Well, it's the same way everywhere. In the US one got eight years in prison for recording a cinema with his cam.

[JdB 151]

Well, it's the same way everywhere. In the US one got eight years in prison for recording a cinema with his cam.

That's what you get when corporations make the laws, the same companies who have those people we call our "chosen representatives" in their pockets

[Guest Ti0n3r]

That's what I call Capitalism gone too far. Disgusting

Quote[/b] ]Well, it's the same way everywhere. In the US one got eight years in prison for recording a cinema with his cam.

The world is sick

[-ZG-BUZZARD 0]

Ehh? How can you put the act of filming something with a camera and a teacher installing software on computers in a school in the same bag? I mean, in the case of the teacher, he was just doing something the russian ministry of education should have taken care of by itself, but someone filming a movie with a camera, actually should be shot (j/k) - the quality of such videos are crap, and it really isn't good to do that... The fact that that guy got 8 years, well, that makes me laugh!

[shinRaiden 0]

Now hold on just a second here...

Let's run with this, suppose you don't support the US actions in Iraq, are you obliged to support suicide bombings in retaliation? No, you can condemn both rationally.

Similarly, in this IP case. There is a systemic problem between developing and developed nations, where developed nations argue for strong IP protection and developing nations seek to work outside those definitions. I'm not to the point in my argument about what is right and wrong, I'm pointing out the differences.

Services based economies have attempted to handle non-material ideas or distribution methods as real commodities. In a way, it's like implying that the virtual electronic transfer of a modulation that replicates the audio waveform of Metallica's "Orion" is economically no different than a sack of wheat or a ship of oil.

Developing nations have consistently posed a problem for businesses from developed nations attempting to use traditional business models. With robust patent and copyright legal protections, the businesses settle into a mode of operations where the product is market competitive. In developing nations, where the protections are not reliable, the business is forced to be market competitive, rather than the product. This leads to serious complications where other legal controls to inhibit overt institutional corruption are not as robust.

The US and other developed nations have repeatedly pressured developing nations such as Russia and China to institute the needed legal and social changes to mirror the status quo in the developed world. For political and social reasons, those efforts have been met with fairly stiff resistance, at the same time economically exploitive activities have increased.

Now obviously this is an emotionally charged example, "Microsoft's abusing an impoverished foreign school". However, the school and the government deliberately chose to use this case as an exploitive excuse in their negotiations to avoid developed nations style IP compliance, rather than look for other alternatives.

There is a vast amount of technology grant programs throughout the US, there's no reason why a similar aid program couldn't be negotiated to benefit the school and bolster international relations. Instead, it's like the principal going to the village butcher, walking out with a cart load of meat and refusing to pay. "It's for the kids, and there's plenty more for you to sell from where that came from."

In the IT world, one of the problems in the globalization business is that the outsourced vendors for various hardware firms (non-virtual hard commodities) often have 'leaky' factories supporting copycat production of commodities directly competing with the primary client. Through sloppy business practices such as The Great Capacitor Debacle (electronics vendors thought they'd save R&D money by dumpster diving competitors, ended up stealing fundamentally flawed and rejected designs, cost the electronics industry astronomical billions in costs and goodwill through gross incompetence) sometimes (not always) inferior products slip into 'official' supply channels.

Customers buy these copycat's, assuming they're legit, and expect full service. The original vendor is then stuck in a tight spot, since "the customer is always right". If the vendor doesn't service the knockoff, the customer gets cranky and the vendor looses goodwill. If the vendor does service them, they stand to lose substantial revenue in the process while doing nothing to stop the problem that is leading to real revenue loss in certain business units.

It's not a clear cut problem, but it's one that often gets negotiated too narrowly. Additionally, much of the hype you read about in the media is really nonsense PR by the opposing parties designed to embarrass the other side into caving on the negotiations. That's a subject for another day, the assumption that negotiations excludes mutual 'winners'.

[redpride 0]

That's another problem these days , many people have a lot to say but speak with littlest sense.

[Luciano 0]

ShinRaiden, why go off topic like that?

I heard it was Microsoft that pushed for this case to be solved. 5 years is pretty ridiculous considering a marine who basically committed war crimes in Iraq got less because of some plea bargain.

Lesson: Pirate stuff for yourself.

[shinRaiden 0]

How is that offtopic? Go back and actually look at all that's been bantered back and forth for all the years. This situation is being made out to be a case example, and all parties are obliged to slug it out.

Why is there the problem in the first place? My point about the role of IP in developed vs developing nations. Either way, it would seem that by traditional rules it is in Russia's best interest to crack down on the school. A) If they want to play by western rules they need to enforce IP protection. B) If they want to shame the West at the negotiating table, sending an expendable peasant to the gulag's not a big deal really.

Sure Microsoft is coming across as heavy handed. But that's because the political system was gamed so that the test case for dealing with IP protection in Russia was a "poor, innocent schoolteacher" instead of any number of other more affluent business ventures. Secondly, the only reason anybody knows about this case is that the supporters of the status quo have gone out of their way to flood the naive n00bers in the western activist media with the story. So the reason you're hearing about it in the first place is part of a deliberate PR spin from the business parties that have nothing to do with the schoolteacher.

On the other hand, Microsoft's stuck in a pickle. If they don't push their case, they come across as exploitable and their argument about IP falls flat. Not just Microsoft, but all of Western business depends on Microsoft holding firm no matter how bad it looks. If they do hold out, there's a risk of losing market goodwill, but the people that care seriously right now have already drunk the koolaid so it's pointless trying to market to them.

[billybob2002 0]

That's what I call Capitalism gone too far. Disgusting

Quote[/b] ]Well, it's the same way everywhere. In the US one got eight years in prison for recording a cinema with his cam.

The world is sick

Did anybody actually read the story? Microsoft isn't involved in the case. In fact, Microsoft believes the guy shouldn't had been criminally prosecuted. It seems the prosecutor pushed the case. The prosecutor did though give the guy a plea bargain but he rejected it.

[billybob2002 0]

Ok, I just checked some other sites to learn about this case because the news article is a few months old. Well, Ponosov could of gotten five years but he didn't. He was found guilty of the charge and he was given a fine of 5,000 roubles.

He was fined less than $200 with no jail time

http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/0/28.html?id_issue=11768154

[sputnik monroe 102]

Quote[/b] ]Ok, I just checked some other sites to learn about this case because the news article is a few months old. Well, Ponosov could of gotten five years but he didn't. He was found guilty of the charge and he was given a fine of 5,000 roubles.

He was fined less than $200 with no jail time

Pffft! How dare you post such rubbish. Never let the truth get in the way of your opinion.

[shinRaiden 0]

Quote[/b] ]Ok, I just checked some other sites to learn about this case because the news article is a few months old. Well, Ponosov could of gotten five years but he didn't. He was found guilty of the charge and he was given a fine of 5,000 roubles.

He was fined less than $200 with no jail time

Pffft! How dare you post such rubbish. Never let the truth get in the way of your opinion.

Indeed. If everyone goes running around spouting the stuff that is reality, and dismisses the frivolous Daliesque world of surreal activist hype, it will be a very boring world indeed.

[red oct 2]

5 years is a pretty light sentance imho. you can spend up to 40 years w/ a fine easily over 100k here in the states depending on how much you where pirating. my question is this:

why is that when somebody in this community (OFP/ArmA) Plagiarize the work of a mod maker who spent only their free time making, the natural response is to go completely ape-shit on the individual who stole the others work, but when it comes to a company that employees thousands who all earn their living by researching and developing all this technology that everybody seems to take for granted its interpeted as acceptable for some reason. companies loose billions because of piracy, i would say their reaction to this is quite reasonable.

[redpride 0]

How does a company "loose billions" from piracy? Every time a corporation decides to invest in a project they are taking market risks. If their investment pays off they will sell their product well and in large quantities and not only make up for initial gross investment but also surplus profit. In thriving economies it's easy for them to sell their product but in areas where it's not looking too good you can't be surprised. The real problem is indeed financial here. And in places like let's say Russia (not in Moscow) where if you're lucky enough to have a job with a salary that allows you to not only to make ends meet from month to month but also for such luxury items as original computer software especially Microsoft's over-priced Windows. If these companies were intent on fighting piracy they would make their product more affordable to your average consumer in weak economies and miraculously they'd see more people buying original software and piracy plummet..

Sometime pirate motivations are also ideological , but rarely that is the case. If I breed my pure breed , licensed Rottie with another pure breed rottie avoiding standard breeding rules of the kennel club selling the unlicensed puppies at a much lower price to family members would this also be considered piracy?

I think the stricter consequences they enforce on such things the more people will resist, being such the nature of man.

[Commando84 0]

thats to much, in my country you would have gotten away with a big bill to pay to the corporate or something...

and now police cant house search if the suspect wont come and tell that he ownz copyrighted stuff...

and yeah windows is overprized.. if i had made windows i had made it 60% cheaper...

and the movie industry said they loose millions of cash but then check the dvd sales and you can't belive them at all...