

Microsoft responds to NYT story on suppressing dissent in Russia - credo
http://blogs.technet.com/b/microsoft_blog/archive/2010/09/13/anti-piracy-enforcement-and-ngos.aspx

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pvg
I didn't understand the kneejerky misdirected anger at Microsoft when this was
first reported nor do I really get the congratulatory backslapping of the NYT
now. Microsoft did not send their goons to some downtrodden NGO's office, they
didn't confiscate anyone's computers, nor did they even accuse this particular
organization of piracy. Their Russian offices may have been less than
sympathetic to the NGO's frantic attempts to get their property back, but
realistically, there probably wasn't a great deal they could do. The report
itself suggested the NGO was running licensed software and this fact was
simply ignored by the authorities who just happened to be using license
enforcement as a pretext to harass an organization they didn't like. They
might have well claimed Baikal Wave were running improperly licensed Ubuntu,
for all the difference it would have made.

Russia is simply not a society governed by the rule of law. No well-
intentioned Microsoft initiative or poignant NYT report is likely to change
that.

~~~
credo
From the original NYT report _"Interviews and a review of law enforcement
documents show that in recent cases, Microsoft lawyers made statements
describing the company as a victim and arguing that criminal charges should be
pursued."_ (note that Baikal Wave says it purchased and installed legal
Microsoft software)

In another section _'In southwestern Russia, the Interior Ministry declared in
an official document that its investigation of a human rights advocate for
software piracy was begun "based on an application" from a lawyer for
Microsoft.'_

Microsoft corporate has ignored complaints about this for months (yesterday's
NYT report has made them change their policy)

Why do you describe concerns as "kneejerky misdirected anger at Microsoft".

Do you consider Microsoft's actions as ethical (or not an obstruction of
justice) ?

[edit: to answer pvg's follow-up, in this context, by "obstruction of justice"
I'm referring to Microsoft helping prosecutors commit a crime or Microsoft
interfering with "proper" operations of a court]

~~~
pvg
_Do you consider Microsoft's actions as ethical_

I honestly don't know. Operating in such an environment ethically convoluted.
I just don't think those ethical complexities are particularly important or
worthy of handwringing when the problem at hand is 'the man comes and forcibly
and arbitrarily takes your property'.

 _or not an obstruction of justice_

I am not sure what you mean by 'obstruction of justice' in this context.

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NumberFiveAlive
I'm sure most people are (rightly) going to take Microsoft's word on this with
a great deal of skepticism, but kudos to them for at least responding to it in
a timely fashion and with what appears to be a responsible approach to the
allegations.

~~~
credo
Agreed - more importantly, kudos to the New York Times for their original
report (which seems to have convinced Microsoft to change their policy).

~~~
tomh
Although the Committee to Protect Journalists originally reported this tactic
being used against the free press in Bishkek back in April:

[http://cpj.org/blog/2010/04/microsoft-piracy-and-
independent...](http://cpj.org/blog/2010/04/microsoft-piracy-and-independent-
media-in-kyrgyzst.php)

------
SwellJoe
Since I've been using Linux as my primary desktop OS for about 15 years, and
my entire professional career has been managing Linux and UNIX systems, I
haven't really thought much about Microsoft and their licensing policies or
anti-piracy practices...but, we recently had a customer demand an online
printable "Certificate of Authenticity" for our software, and pointed to the
Microsoft digital certificate of authenticity as the ideal example of such.
His organization _requires_ all software used to have such a certificate.

The truly nefarious aspect of this weird policy (which seems to exist, in
lesser forms in other places, based on demands we've had for various specific
bits of information on invoices) is that Open Source software is completely
out of the running in the organizations that embrace such a policy. In our
case, Virtualmin is an umbrella under which a couple dozen Open Source apps
run, so I guess having the certificate for Virtualmin satisfies the policy (at
least well enough for the IT guy to bluff his way through).

This isn't really comparable to political dissent being squashed, of course,
but it gave me a pretty chilling view of Microsoft and their anti-piracy
practices that I hadn't been aware of, and makes me far more likely to believe
that MS would participate in using the thug power of Russian police in order
to scare organizations and individuals out of pirating their products.

I'll also note that the BSA "report your neighbor" whistle-blower policy,
which has been in effect for a couple of decades, has always reeked a little
of the secret police and surveillance culture found in oppressive regimes.

~~~
knowtheory
For your client, why not just print out a copy of the GPL, put a big
"CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY" and then have someone sign it?

~~~
SwellJoe
It's actually our commercial software in question (we have a dual-licensed
model for Virtualmin and Cloudmin, with the Open Source variant being under
the GPL). I'm going to Photoshop something up for him, with the serial number
and license key.

I'm tempted to pirate the Microsoft Certificate of Authenticity, and stick our
numbers in there. There would be some sort of poetic something or other in
that.

~~~
joubert
Just make sure it includes a hologram.

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siculars
Hey look at that. Good journalism still has a place in this fast paced, linked
up, tweeted world we live in. I don't often say this but grats, nyt.

~~~
pvg
[http://baikalwave.blogspot.com/2010/07/police-finally-
return...](http://baikalwave.blogspot.com/2010/07/police-finally-return-
illegally-seized.html)

The whole incident started and (mostly, but not entirely) concluded months
before the NYT published anything about it, in this fast-paced, linked up,
tweeted world we live in.

~~~
SwellJoe
But, it took an article in the NYT to get a response out of Microsoft.

~~~
pvg
There was already a response from Microsoft - their NGO discount program was
in place, they claim to advise governments to focus enforcement efforts on the
producers rather than consumers of pirated software and so on. It's great
they've responded again and perhaps more stridently and publicly. But I have a
hard time believing this sort of thing helps much with the fundamental problem
which is an authoritarian and coercive government. And I think it's naive to
expect that it would.

~~~
siculars
Obviously we can expect nothing from Russia except more of the same.
Nevertheless, this kind of press moves the needle as evidenced by the prompt
reply from Microsoft.

------
VladRussian
MS is just reaping what they saw as they worked extremely hard toward letting
this demon out. Russian government wouldn't be defending your legal rights out
of sheer generocity. The governments of all levels in Russia are now happily
using anti-piracy law enforcement in addition to the old good sanitary, fire,
tax audit inspections. It is a very Russian specific thing - the majority of
laws are very good and very strong, while their application is a matter of
government's selectively targeting will.

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anonymous
"A story in yesterday’s New York Times reports on anti-piracy enforcement
actions in Russia that have been used for more nefarious purposes than
protecting intellectual property rights."

It's good of Microsoft PR to classify protecting IP rights as nefarious,
though somewhat less nefarious than actually using IP for supressing dissent.
A step in the right direction, to be sure!

~~~
houseabsolute
I don't think that they are trying to make that implication. One thing can be
more than another thing even if that other thing is zero.

~~~
wnoise
'Take some more tea,' the March Hare said to Alice, very earnestly.

'I've had nothing yet,' Alice replied in an offended tone, 'so I can't take
more.'

'You mean you can't take less,' said the Hatter: 'it's very easy to take more
than nothing.'

------
Eliezer
This seems like a perfect response from Microsoft. I don't see what more
anyone could _reasonably_ ask of them.

------
patrickaljord
I'm not a big fan of Microsoft, but every time I read something tech related
(google, facebook, apple etc) on the NYT, it's overblown sensationalism. Which
is ok I guess except that the NYT always prides itself as the ultimate pro
journalism and its website is always shown at google and apple web browsers
demos as the reference in good journalism... BS.

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lfnik
What happened to this man who was jailed?
[http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/09-02-2007/87229-mi...](http://english.pravda.ru/society/stories/09-02-2007/87229-microsoft_windows-0/)

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lappet
Although NGOs would probably be better off with Opensource, Microsoft remains
the market leader for Desktops and them willing to donate their products for a
just cause does sound nice

~~~
ljf
sounds nice /or/ good spin on bad situation?

------
danielnicollet
How sweet and well-intentioned. If I were my grandmother, I would want this
bright and appeasing young counsel as my son-in-law! :)

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nice1
I am not a user of their software and I generally dislike their business
practices, but I must say that for this response they deserve credit and
respect.

