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Antipiracy group the Business Software Alliance lists Russia as one of the top 10 worst offending countries for counterfeit software. Deputy Russian IT minister Dmitry Milovantsev admitted in a briefing in Moscow last week software piracy is a "very serious problem" for the country.
He said the low average income of people in Russia is one of the factors in the relatively widespread use of cheaper pirated copies of software. But he also laid some of the blame on the behavior of the large software vendors for their restrictive and expensive licensing policies.
In particular he singled out Microsoft for its policy of not allowing partners to sell computers without copies of Windows pre-installed in Russia.
"If you want to install Linux you have to erase Microsoft, and that increases the cost of each computer by $50. (With) one that already has Windows installed on it, and you want to use open source, you have to install the operating system," he said.
Milovantsev said law enforcement efforts should be focused not on the individuals caught using fake software but the criminals manufacturing it.
"We are constantly fighting against unlicensed use of software, but we need to fight not with the consumers but those who develop the software," he said.
With Russia stepping up its bid to compete in the international IT outsourcing market and attract business to the country, Milovantsev maintained it has a "very strict and solid" position when it comes to industrial intellectual property rights.
The problem of software piracy in Russia has been highlighted in recent weeks by the case of a teacher accused of using unlicensed copies of Microsoft Windows and Office software on 12 classroom PCs.
The case attracted the attention of current Russian President Vladimir Putin and former leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who called for the charges to be dropped. This week, the Russian courts dismissed the prosecution calls for the teacher to be fined and rejected the case as "trivial."
Andy McCue of Silicon.com reported from London.
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A plea for relief from Microsoft's escalating anti-competitive tactics.
http://itheresies.blogspot.com/2004_03_01_archive.html
[i]An open letter to antitrust, competition, consumer and trade practice monitoring agency officials worldwide.[/i]
Since the above letter was published the only truly pro-competitive action Microsoft has taken has been to allow some third party vendors to sell some of Microsoft's Multimedia Codecs for use on Linux.
Everyone bashing MS, when the Russian goverment is nothing more than a KGB filled mafia. I doubt Russia pays anything for any MS software they use.....and who is going to stop them.
90% of computers sold in Russia are assembled from parts shipped from China, can be mostly are purchased without OS license of any kind.
People who earn average income don't buy computers. Period.
$50 in Moscow, is hardly a lot of money, you can't even buy a decent dinner in a restaurant for that these days.
People buying computers earn quite above average.
It's quite typical for an average businessman to purchase a new Mercedeses or BMW, or a new flat or a cottage, for hard green cash.
Russia has positive trade balance that is second only to China, btw, so for a goverment official pretending to be voice of the poor is a little bit lame.
The truth is that piracy is a business industry in Russia, well developed and highly profitable.
Which is the primary reason that despite quite a decent educational system and significant pool of technical talents, there is virtually no software industry.
"In particular he singled out Microsoft for its policy of not allowing partners to sell computers without copies of Windows pre-installed in Russia"
This apparently goes on everywhere, and until the DOJ or someone calls Microsoft on it, IMO, they have no business complaining about the way any other company runs their business.
Lets look at some other examples... KFC and Taco Bell only sell pepsi products to drink; Burger King only sells coke products. Apple only sells computers with OSX and does not give you a choice to have another preinstalled. These types of arrangements are common in business... you make a deal to only use products from a particular supplier and you get a discount from the supplier. So, why don't computer makers sell computers with other operating systems? Why don't you ask them.
- "Milovantsev said....
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by Commander_Spock
February 17, 2007 8:53 PM PST
- ... law enforcement efforts should be focused not on the individuals caught using fake software but the criminals manufacturing it...". How about Microsoft agreeing with IBM to develop and distribute OS/2 (which was on track to be a much better Operating system than Windows) for free then there will be less incentives to pirate Windows since according to reports it appears that almost 90% of the Windows Operating System in Russia and China are pirated copies; they can make money by selling applications that are much more difficult to be copied (have mechanisms on the Windows Operating Systems that disable applications that have not been paid for. In any case how come countries with students who finish 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.... respectively in international competitions and appear to be rather dependent on the softwares that were designed, developed and manufactured by other countries?
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