Windows piracy case thrown out in Russia

[Vympel]

Trivial, comrade. Now sod off.

A Russian court has thrown out a criminal case against a rural headteacher accused of using pirated Microsoft software in his school.

The court in Perm, some 1000km (620 miles) east of Moscow, dismissed the case of Alexander Ponosov as "trivial".

The trial was seen as a response by the authorities to international pressure to crack down on piracy in Russia.

Industry experts say Russia ranks second only to China in use of illegal computer software and bootlegged music.

"We're off to drink champagne now," Mr Ponosov told the Associated Press news agency after the court ruling.

"Of course, it was trivial," he said.

Mr Ponosov earlier told the BBC that Russian prosecutors had brought the case against him and he was unaware of any Microsoft claim against him.

He said the 12 new computers at his school had been delivered with the unlicensed software already installed. The school in the Urals village of Sepych has 380 pupils.

Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev had publicly voiced support for Mr Ponosov.

I'd love to see the decision, myself. Surely they had a better reason than "this is trivial." Not that I object to that reason.

[Lazarus]

Reading this, I get the idea that the Russian government turn a blind eye to this sort of piracy because it benefits them in some way? Perhaps similar piracy occurs within the government itself? Not that I'm saying its wrong, just interesting...

[General Zod]

Reading this, I get the idea that the Russian government turn a blind eye to this sort of piracy because it benefits them in some way? Perhaps similar piracy occurs within the government itself? Not that I'm saying its wrong, just interesting...

Or maybe they actually listened to the teacher's defense of not installing the pirated software himself, decided the guy wasn't liable and let it go? This might be a bit too optimistic of me of course.

[anybody_mcc]

Reading this, I get the idea that the Russian government turn a blind eye to this sort of piracy because it benefits them in some way? Perhaps similar piracy occurs within the government itself? Not that I'm saying its wrong, just interesting...

There was an incident , not long ago , in Romania when Romanian president told Bill Gates that he thanks the software pirates for making it possible to today's romanian programmers to become who they are now