[A2k] John Pallato: principal of middle school sentenced to IP gulag

[Manon Ress]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
Sentenced to the Intellectual Property Gulag
http://news.yahoo.com/s/zd/20070207/tc_zd/200554


John Pallatto - eWEEK Wed Feb 7, 4:32 AM ET

For years the software industry, with the support of the United
States government, has been calling on countries around the world to
crack down on software piracy to demonstrate their commitment to free
trade and the rule of international law.

However, software piracy remains rampant in developing nations, and
especially in China and Russia, despite the rapid development of
capitalist market economies in those countries.

So it seems natural that the software industry would rejoice when the
news emerged recently that the police in Russia have arrested a
software pirate, prosecuted the malefactor to the full extent of the
law and are preparing to send the miscreant to a Siberian prison camp.

But the real story is that the Russian courts have convicted
Alexander Ponosov, the principal of a middle school in a remote Ural
Mountains village, for unwittingly buying PCs for his students that
were loaded with unlicensed copies of Microsoft software.

This information is coming to the world's attention mainly because
former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev published an open letter on
the Web site, www.gorby.ru of his charitable foundation calling on
Microsoft Chairman
Bill Gates to intercede on Ponosov's behalf on the grounds that the
teacher wasn't aware that PCs contained pirated software.

The letter describes Ponosov as a teacher "who has dedicated his life
to the education of children and who receives a modest salary that
does not bear comparison with the salaries of even regular staff" at
Microsoft.

"In this situation, we ask you to show mercy and withdraw your
complaint," said Gorbachev's letter, a rough translation of which is
available through Google.

However, Microsoft intends to keep hands off the case. The New York
Times reported Tuesday that Microsoft's public relations agency in
London released a statement that the company was "sure that the
Russian courts will make a fair decision."

The statement also lauded the Russian government's effort to
prosecute software privacy cases, according to the Times report. "We
do respect the Russian government's position on the importance of
protecting intellection property rights," the statement said.

Sadly what the case shows is that the Russian legal system has failed
to progress from the Kafkaesque logic that over the past century sent
millions of people to the misery of imprisonment in Siberian gulags
on the whims of politicians, bureaucrats and secret police.

Russia is under pressure from the western software industry to crack
down on software piracy. So what does the criminal justice system do?
It sends Ponosov, a software consumer and victim of piracy, to
Siberia. Meanwhile the producers and distributors of pirated software
are untouched and continue to reap millions by ripping off consumers
as well as legitimate software producers.

Next Page: Lost in the Gulag

The one note of hope in this story is that Russian President
Vladimir Putin has reportedly expressed anger concerning the twisted
legal logic displayed in the Ponosov case. According to a BBC report,
Putin called on investigators to "go after the distributors, not the
users." There was a time in Russia when a word from the nation's
supreme leader was enough to send citizens to the firing squad or
free them from the gulags.

But Russia is now reputed to be a nation of laws not personalities.
So Ponosov may find himself languishing in jail while he waits for
the wheels of justice to grind to a conclusion.

Microsoft's attitude in this case is strange and perplexing.
Presumably the company is so happy that Russian prosecutors are doing
anything to combat software piracy that it won't dare to express
regret that a confused middle school principal is going to prison for
buying PCs loaded with bogus software.

If investigators took a close look at the PC distribution network in
Russia, especially in the country's vast hinterlands, they would
likely discover that consumers like Ponosov would be hard pressed to
find any new computers that were loaded with certified genuine
Microsoft software. In fact that they would probably have a hard time
even determining whether the software loaded on their newly-purchased
hardware was bona fide.

So what should Microsoft do about this? It would help if it was
willing to take another look at this pathetic case and see if there
is a way to give the poor principal a break.

It could be that as far as the Russian criminal justice system is
concerned, nothing that Bill Gates might say would make any
difference in Ponosov's case.

However, this case might actually prove to be a business and
philanthropic opportunity for Gates and his charitable foundation.
There might be a way for Microsoft as well as other software and
hardware vendors to work with the Russian government and the private
sector to see what needs to be done to build modern distribution
channels throughout the country. This might actually increase the
chances that consumers will be able to buy new computers that contain
properly licensed software.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation might find its way clear to
donate PCs to some of those remote Russian school districts. This
would help educate kids about the amazing things computers can do and
train a rising generation of more affluent Russians who would be in a
better position to afford genuine Microsoft products.

Such an effort might even convince a certain Russian middle school
principal that his attempt to provide basic computing resources for
his students wasn't a futile nightmare after all.

John Pallatto is a veteran journalist in the field of enterprise
software and Internet technology. He can be reached at
john_pallatto@ziffdavis.com.

Click here for an archive of John Pallatto's columns.

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Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@keionline.org,
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology
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