Russia Uses Microsoft to Suppress Dissent

[denem]

Source: NY Times

IRKUTSK, Russia — It was late one afternoon in January when a squad of plainclothes police officers arrived at the headquarters of a prominent environmental group here. They brushed past the staff with barely a word and instead set upon the computers before carting them away. Taken were files that chronicled a generation’s worth of efforts to protect the Siberian wilderness.

The group, Baikal Environmental Wave, was organizing protests against Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin’s decision to reopen a paper factory that had polluted nearby Lake Baikal, a natural wonder that by some estimates holds 20 percent of the world’s fresh water.

Instead, the group fell victim to one of the authorities’ newest tactics for quelling dissent: confiscating computers under the pretext of searching for pirated Microsoft software.

As the ploy grows common, the authorities are receiving key assistance from an unexpected partner: Microsoft itself. In politically tinged inquiries across Russia, lawyers retained by Microsoft have staunchly backed the police.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/world/europe/12raids.html?hp

---

No, cloud backups nor Linux are an answer. PCs are being confiscated on suspicion of containing unlicensed Microsoft software. Then '... in recent cases, Microsoft lawyers made statements describing the company as a victim and arguing that criminal charges should be pursued'. Indeed. No doubt the FSB lacks the extraordinary technical prowess needed to fabricate a copyright violation or two.

[annabanana]

1. Look Well Oh Wolves. . -

So you will know this child when it comes into your circle.

[denem]

2. Here you go

http://www.russianhunting.com/wolf-hunting-in-russia/

[annabanana]

6. such a literalist. .

I was just thinking how easy it would be for the US to travel a similar road, and hoping people would recognize it if it happened. .

The Law of the Jungle lays down very clearly that any wolf may, when he marries, withdraw from the Pack he belongs to. But as soon as his cubs are old enough to stand on their feet he must bring them to the Pack Council, which is generally held once a month at full moon, in order that the other wolves may identify them. After that inspection the cubs are free to run where they please, and until they have killed their first buck no excuse is accepted if a grown wolf of the Pack kills one of them. The punishment is death where the murderer can be found; and if you think for a minute you will see that this must be so.

Father Wolf waited till his cubs could run a little, and then on the night of the Pack Meeting took them and Mowgli and Mother Wolf to the Council Rock—a hilltop covered with stones and boulders where a hundred wolves could hide. Akela, the great gray Lone Wolf, who led all the Pack by strength and cunning, lay out at full length on his rock, and below him sat forty or more wolves of every size and color, from badger-colored veterans who could handle a buck alone to young black three-year-olds who thought they could. The Lone Wolf had led them for a year now. He had fallen twice into a wolf trap in his youth, and once he had been beaten and left for dead; so he knew the manners and customs of men. There was very little talking at the Rock. The cubs tumbled over each other in the center of the circle where their mothers and fathers sat, and now and again a senior wolf would go quietly up to a cub, look at him carefully, and return to his place on noiseless feet. Sometimes a mother would push her cub far out into the moonlight to be sure that he had not been overlooked. Akela from his rock would cry: "Ye know the Law—ye know the Law. Look well, O Wolves!" And the anxious mothers would take up the call: "Look—look well, O Wolves!"

At last—and Mother Wolf's neck bristles lifted as the time came—Father Wolf pushed "Mowgli the Frog," as they called him, into the center, where he sat laughing and playing with some pebbles that glistened in the moonlight.

Akela never raised his head from his paws, but went on with the monotonous cry: "Look well!" A muffled roar came up from behind the rocks—the voice of Shere Khan crying: "The cub is mine. Give him to me. What have the Free People to do with a man's cub?" Akela never even twitched his ears. All he said was: "Look well, O Wolves! What have the Free People to do with the orders of any save the Free People? Look well!"

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/236/236-h/236-h.htm#2H_4_0001

[HillbillyBob]

3. They maybe need links and computers set outside of Russia

say something like wiki leaks.I assume the have machines spread about.

[denem]

4. Criminal convictions for copyright violation

are more difficult to upload.

[naaman fletcher]

5. I'm not sure what Microsoft is supposed to do here..

Say, no, we don't want people to be investigated for stealing our software? Sure they would like to say "don't do it for political reasons" but the FSB is never going to admit that it's for political reasons.

[denem]

7. How about dropping the pursuit of criminal charges

as the default option, as opposed to seeking a civil mediation of damages.

[naaman fletcher]

23. if they do that...

there will be endless pirating, they don't have the time to pursue a civil case against everyone who copies windows. It would cost more than simply giving it to everybody for free.

[sulphurdunn]

10. The issue of pirated software

needs to be dealt with at the production and distribution levels. Once the stuff is in private computers, privacy rights should trump proprietary rights. If not, we are in deep trouble.

[msongs]

11. so If I take your computer, once it's in MY house you not longer have a right to it. nt

[sulphurdunn]

14. If you take my computer without my consent

you are a thief. If that computer came with pirated software installed or if I unknowingly loaded pirated software onto that computer then I am not a thief. If you got busted for stealing my computer you'd deserve it, but you wouldn't deserve answering to Microsoft because of the computer's software any more than I would.

[24601]

16. If you pirate software, you also are a thief. What I detect is a

difference of opinion based on who theft victim is. If it's big, bad Microsoft, well, they probably deserved it. No doubt, Bill Gates was dressing provocatively and was asking for it.

[sulphurdunn]

18. Not so.

My original post stated that the enforcement of patents, especially software patents must be enforced at the production and distribution levels. Going after individual computers in people's homes because Microsoft or anyone else has a "suspicion" is a clear violation of the probable cause clause of the Fourth Amendment. At present Microsoft has no authority to have anyone's home searched for anything. The concern was that if it is willing to support such behavior in Russia, it would certainly either aid or abet similar behavior here using government as its bully boy and proprietary rights as an excuse. How big or bad Microsoft is, or how Bill Gates dresses is irrelevant. What is relevant is that no corporation should ever be permitted to supplant the civil rights of individuals for the sake of its own financial interests.

[24601]

19. The story is about enforcement in Russia. To search Mr. X's house

in the US still requires a warrant and the Constitution says warrants require probable cause. It doesn't matter if the police are look for your computer or stolen software. (And while requiring probable cause for warrants, the Constitution doesn't go on to say that all searches require warrants - it says that searches must be reasonable and the courts have upheld myriad non-warrant searches, and this category of warrant-less searches, for example for anything/anybody crossing the boarder - doesn't require probable cause - but this is another discussion requiring it's own thread)

[sulphurdunn]

21. Yes, but I'm a United States citizen

and anyone coming through my front door to search for pirated computer software or anything else damn well better have a warrant stating specifically what it is they are searching for and why, and no court had better issue such a warrant but for probable cause. That was and is the only point I was trying to make.

[DWilliamsamh]

8. TOTALLY Misleading head line. Unrec for dishonesty. N/T

[denem]

9. It's NYT, not my headline. "USES' Microsoft.

and indeed they are.

[DissedByBush]

12. The BSA is the modern-day Sturmabteilung or Stasi

They even pay people for turning in alleged license violators

[ProgressiveProfessor]

13. Parallel Post

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9118605 in General Discussion

[dkofos]

15. Best reason yet to ONLY use FREE OPEN SOURCE software.

It's only a matter of time before that tactic is used here.

[Shining Jack]

17. K&R

That's disgusting.

[boppers]

20. Baikal Wave was (by their own admission) using MS software.

That's enough to generate suspicion.

Sure, if the computers were linux, and they were working in the cloud, rather than the desktop, the computers could *still* be seized, but they could be replaced in a matter of *hours* without any data loss.

Since the article details a computer containing $3,300 worth of pirated software, I'm guessing they were running MS server products without the required CAL's, and from the way the article reads (they thought a sticker was valid proof? really?) this is a clash between politically-related prosecution and clueless users.

[unkachuck]

22. moral of the story....

....don't use billy's software....

[Rex]

24. Hahaha..okay for a moment I had an 1984 meets Bill moment.

Cause I can totally see that working out.