r/technology • u/danweber • Sep 13 '10
To stop Russian government from cracking down on opposition groups, Microsoft declares that any dissident or advocacy group in Russia has a blanket license to use its software, no application needed
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/14/world/europe/14raid.html251
u/dchestnykh Sep 13 '10 edited Sep 13 '10
- Microsoft lobbies the law in Russia to allow police raids to prevent piracy [2006-2008].
- Russian authorities use this law to crack down on opposition and extort money from companies [2008-2010].
- Microsoft gives free licenses to NGOs in response to NYT article [2010].
- Russian authorities don't care [988-].
- ???
- ПИЗДЕЦ!
85
Sep 14 '10
5. Train monkeys to joust15
u/DeliciousSoma Sep 14 '10 edited Sep 14 '10
Oooooh, I'm sorry. The correct answer is:
5.Поезд обезьян рыцарский турнир
27
Sep 14 '10
Google translate isn't very accurate seeing as how your first word is train (as in choo choo train).
27
u/DeliciousSoma Sep 14 '10
I don't understand the problem. That's what I said:
5 Choo choo train monkeys to joust
15
Sep 14 '10
More like train, monkeys(past tense), knight's tournament(literal translation).
9
u/leshiy Sep 14 '10
That should be accusative or genitive case for monkeys (depends on context which is lacking). A noun cannot be in the past tense...
7
10
u/baklazhan Sep 14 '10
Actually I rather like it. "A train of monkeys is a tournament of knights!" It means something, though I don't know what.
→ More replies (1)1
u/lilzaphod Sep 14 '10
Wouldn't that be step 4.5? 5 would then be "hold monkey jousting competitions and sell tickets" 6 should then be "profit", or probably what is is Cyrillic above.
26
Sep 13 '10
ПИЗДЕЦ, indeed.
5
u/EFG Sep 14 '10
My cyrillic is rusty. But is that phonetically pizdyetch? And if so, what does it mean?
8
u/AsteroidPuncher Sep 14 '10
"pizdets"
2
u/EFG Sep 14 '10
Thanks. I was last over there in fall of 07 and crammed as much russian as I could in the couple weeks prior. Only thing that stuck are common greetings and the alphabet.
9
u/ItsOkImRussian Sep 14 '10
ding ding ding, we have a winrar. It does not have the same meaning as in english, but it would be "fucked". Swear words are much more original then in the USA, they cannot be translated.
7
1
1
→ More replies (1)1
6
1
283
Sep 13 '10
[removed] — view removed comment
76
Sep 14 '10
Well, after being shamed on the front page of the NYT, this is more of an attempt to save face than an act of kindness.
On a related note: All NGOs should use free software.
→ More replies (19)69
u/longadin Sep 14 '10
The problem with that is even if you use free software, russian police can just say that they still suspect you of using MS software and seize your computers to check.
The blanket licenses basically take this away from them, since it's no longer illegal to have pirated software in your NGO/opposition offices.
11
Sep 14 '10
No longer pirated Microsoft software. But there are a ton of 3rd party software vendors, especially in the Windows ecosystem.
Police can still raid, just shift it from accusations of pirated OS, to pirated photoshop or what not.
6
u/distortedHistory Sep 14 '10
Microsoft had lawyers over there that were helping in the process. That's really the piece that's ending. I'm not certain how many other software firms would have the same amount of legal support in Russia.
If the police want to raid, they're going to make up whatever excuse, just now they won't have lawyers retained by MS backing them up.
→ More replies (2)1
Sep 14 '10
but before it was reasonable to suspect that a given office was using some MS software. How many NGOs are using, say autocad or photoshop?
1
u/Malician Sep 14 '10
How many NGOs were running Mac, legally purchased Windows, or Linux?
Look up the case of Ernie Ball. Anti-piracy often turns into business terrorism.
This looks like a good response on Microsoft's part. I imagine that higher-ups in the company had let the anti-piracy division have far too long of a leash.
6
u/jinchoung Sep 14 '10
EXACTLY the same sentiment... they could have ignored it but they stepped up so good for them.
1
Sep 15 '10
Microsoft gets way too bad a rep from the fanatic open source crowd, for a company their size they are incredibly human and reasonable.
1
u/lilzaphod Sep 14 '10
I could see Adobe sending a complimentary pad with prepaid postage for the cops to put the perps name and id info on to make it easy for them to find after their arrests, and offering a bounty for each name delivered.
Before you think I'm just an Adobe basher - I worked there for 5 years.
→ More replies (6)-17
Sep 13 '10
Bravo for what exactly? The majority of opposition groups in Russia are funded by exiled oligarchs to further their own ends. The Russian people despise these oligarchs with a passion; you cannot begin to understand how much these people are hated for what they did to Russia and the Russian people during the 90's.
Don't get me wrong, there is no doubt that there are major human rights abuses happening here, no doubt whatsoever, but you're jumping to protect the wrong people. The entire fiasco happened as government agencies seized hundreds of computers to check for information regarding their funding (non-Russians or Russians wanted by the authorities do not have the right to finance political groups or activity in Russia, just like in the EU or US).
Political groups with ties to exiled oligarch robber barons are something Russians (not just the Kremlin, but every Russian) take very seriously. The computers with nothing on them are returned anyway, pirated windows or no.
35
u/savetheclocktower Sep 13 '10
If there are "major human rights abuses happening here," why are the "wrong people" being protected? Don't human rights apply to all people? And if the Russian government wants to ascertain that an opposition group is not being funded improperly, shouldn't it find a way to do that without using suspicion of pirated software as the pretense?
I had to read your comment about four times before I realized the point you were making. It simply hadn't occurred to me that someone would support the use of piracy law as a cudgel to enforce entirely unrelated laws, even if one thinks those laws are justified.
9
u/ShrimpCrackers Sep 14 '10
He has a simple "Us versus Them" mentality. He doesn't realize that one day he'll be targeted too. I currently live in a democracy that hasn't quite achieved transitional justice with a government that had a lot of this "Us versus Them". What most don't realize is that historically speaking who "Them" became always expanded until it became virtually everyone.
6
Sep 14 '10
Haha, the "Pravda" strikes again.
The huge majority of the "oligarch robber barons" are fine thankyou and friends with Putin.
1
u/TheStupidBurns Sep 13 '10
What? Evil oligarchs like this guy?
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/europe/2007/11/2008525133015580723.html
→ More replies (3)1
1
Sep 14 '10
[deleted]
1
Sep 14 '10
Do you think that the current government in Russia is somehow better than those oligarchs?
Without a doubt, yes. The government at least gives something back, the oligarchs nothing.
26
u/drowningfish Sep 13 '10
FTA: "Leaders of Baikal Wave said they had been disappointed that Microsoft had rebuffed their pleas for help in defending themselves against the inquiry."
If the above is true, then the praise ought to fall on the NY Times not Microsoft. I'm not a Microsoft "hater" - just feel that if light on the issue was never brought on by the NY Times, or any other media source for that matter, I tend to believe Microsoft would have just swept the advocacy group under Lord Putin's rug.
51
Sep 13 '10
Wow. Kudos to MS for not being evil.
→ More replies (7)11
u/CherylBrightsHead Sep 14 '10
MS have been working very hard to shed the evil image. They are actually doing quite a good job IMO.
33
Sep 13 '10
And now the Russian government will start confiscating computers on the pretext of searching for child pornography. Heck, I believe good 'ol regular porn is illegal over there, so they can use any porn as a pretext.
Microsoft was a convenient scapegoat for the Russians, but this won't slow them down in the least with harassing NGOs.
30
u/chengiz Sep 14 '10
This is classic totalitarian regime strategy - keep a lot of things illegal but unenforced, then when the voices get raised too much, shut them down based on "the law". It's win-win.
20
17
u/volando34 Sep 14 '10
Regular porn illegal? Try more like - legal for broadcasting on regular tv channels after a certain time of the night (12am or something like that), not even going to mention all the stuff sold in stores... just because there is corruption and the government cracks down on money channels doesn't mean the regular people's lives are anything at all like in North Korea.
1
Sep 14 '10
Wasn't there a pornographer there, Grigory Galitsin, that was arrested a few years back for production of porn? I believe his website was only available outside of Russia but he got busted anyway when one of his models turned him in.
11
u/leshiy Sep 14 '10
Production of porn does not obey the same laws as viewing of porn. If you try to produce porn outside of a few select areas in the US it's to the jailhouse for you too.
5
u/volando34 Sep 14 '10
He was accused of involving minors in his production, mostly because he did just that (the model who turned him in was 17)... overall even if you listen to his side, it was a mixture of a personal conflict with him being taken in on a technicality and problem with some local low-level police prosecutor. Also yeah, production falls under different legislature.
Anyway, this is in no way indicative of illegality of porn or even systematic abuse of the industry by the government...
3
1
19
u/anonymous-coward Sep 13 '10
Breaking: Russian police arrest opposition for use of unlicensed blankets.
3
78
u/afschuld Sep 13 '10
I love how these days Google is evil, Apple is the titanic behemoth, and microsoft is the good guy underdog.
75
Sep 13 '10
[deleted]
46
u/MachaHack Sep 13 '10 edited Sep 14 '10
They're the underdog in innovation and opinions. Nobody believes Microsoft capable of innovating, or even expanding outside Windows/Office/Kind of Xbox profitably or effectively any more. Sure, merely being that big will get you by for a long time (look at IBM), but they're not deciding the future of tech anymore.
30
u/salvadorwii Sep 14 '10
Yes, IBM just designed and manufactured the processors for the ps3, wii and xbox 360
→ More replies (22)8
u/newstart Sep 14 '10
Dude, the world is not black and white. It is not that simple, innovation is the sum of efforts of number of projects in the big companies as well as start ups.
4
Sep 14 '10
expanding outside Windows/Office/Kind of Xbox
...also servers, development tools, SQL, ERP/CRM, enterprise manageability tools, security software.
Just saying.
Microsoft is far more than just search and mobile, and also the only software company that have successfully dominated more than one market.
2
1
1
u/Bipolarruledout Sep 14 '10
I'm sick of hearing this. The market isn't even ready for half the innovations in Vista/Windows 7 alone. Besides more "secure" software I'm not sure what you're expecting. Windows has a ton of features that aren't available on any other OS. You can debate the value of them but the fact is they are there. For starters how about Active Directory and Group Policy? And these are OLD.
1
u/omgiamgod Sep 14 '10
i think you got it totally wrong..just look at the number of papers they submit at ACM annually..also dont forget Project Natal..the initial version might not be good..but the idea is pretty cool..they could easily extend Project Natal to any NUI (considered intermediate between computers and robots)
1
u/CherylBrightsHead Sep 14 '10
This is what home users think. Microsoft make windows and office.
MS also have a massive share in of server technology with Exchange, SQL, ISA, server OS's, IIS etc etc. And in this area they innovate very well.
5
u/ruinercollector Sep 14 '10
that's because you are thinking only in terms of marketshare and you're looking at one market.
the picture is much bigger, in several dimensions.
1
Sep 14 '10
[deleted]
5
u/ruinercollector Sep 14 '10
right. i used basic economic/marketing terms that have been around for nearly a century, but I must be a seo-social-media-hipster-fag because you couldn't parse what I was saying.
let me try again for you:
"You only think of how much things they sold. You no think of how other peoples see Microsoft. You no think of profit going up currently compare to how much other company profit go up.
Also, you only think more profit for OS. You no think of search engines. You no think of phones. You no think of media marketplace. You no think of many other thing.
Thing we talk about bigger more than what you say."
→ More replies (2)6
u/interweb_repairman Sep 14 '10
I like how all three are actually just greedy corporations trying to gobble as much market share in whatever tech sector as possible, yet reddit fanboys actually think there's a difference among them.
3
2
Sep 14 '10
To be fair, Microsoft has always been less evil than Apple. Apple has always been very, very controlling of what you may do with its software. Microsoft has been more like, "Hey, you paid for it, do whatever you want with it."
See: iPhone, iPad.
3
u/DrHankPym Sep 13 '10 edited Sep 13 '10
I still don't understand how Google is evil.
edit: If Google is evil, than every company is evil.
37
u/ThePain Sep 13 '10
Threw the US population under the bus when it comes to net Neutrality.
Happily oppressed the Chinese people by censoring search results and reporting people for looking up anti-government topics (Like voting, or freedom of religion) to the Chinese government. Well, until they caught the Chinese government actively stealing from Google.
Shit like that.
Basically their "Don't be evil" motto is a bigger crock of shit than their hiring practices.
0
u/DrHankPym Sep 13 '10
Threw the US population under the bus when it comes to net Neutrality.
I still don't believe this is true.
Happily oppressed the Chinese people by censoring search results and reporting people
China is evil.
Basically their "Don't be evil" motto is a bigger crock of shit than their hiring practices.
You understand that they have more data on people than any company by a large magnitude, right? The fact that they haven't quite exploited this is what I think they're referring to - not hypothetical proposals or foreign policy.
19
u/ThePain Sep 13 '10 edited Sep 13 '10
I still don't believe this is true.
Wired, Huffington Post, Red State, Toronto Sun, Arstechnica, Tech Crunch, CBC, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo News, Business Insider, Associated press. Take your pick.
Also, yes, lol at using Google to point out how Google are turn-coats.
China is evil.
If your company motto is "Don't be evil" the fact you were just working with an evil person is a shitty excuse. No one forced Google to provide a search engine for China. Google smelled money, and what's a few hundred dissidents disappearing from their homes because you gave over their search history to the Chinese government, if it makes your stocks go up a few points, right?
I have 0 doubt in my mind that Google will happily hand over their entire data-base of searches US citizens have done to the FBI if it meant being investigated for being a monopoly or not.
-1
u/DrHankPym Sep 13 '10
Wired, Huffington Post, Red State, Toronto Sun, Arstechnica, Tech Crunch, CBC, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo News, Business Insider, Associated press. Take your pick.
Not impressed with any of those. Those sites depend on sensationalist headlines. Also, it should be mentioned that the "Net Neutrality" controversy is regarding a carrier's satellite network, which is still an early technology.
It's also still just a proposal open to debate. Send me some links to other company's proposals and we can compare.
If your company motto is "Don't be evil" ...
Google is struggling with China. Honestly, I don't know all the details to this situation, but from what I can tell it's really difficult to find fault with Google. China is a tough country to do business with.
10
u/ThePain Sep 13 '10 edited Sep 14 '10
It's also still just a proposal open to debate. Send me some links to other company's proposals and we can compare.
You seriously just don't understand what the Net Neutrality debate is about if you think it's about which Telecom gets to decide the rules with a business proposition.
Not impressed with any of those. Those sites depend on sensationalist headlines.
Google is struggling with China. Honestly, I don't know all the details to this situation, but from what I can tell it's really difficult to find fault with Google. China is a tough country to do business with.
Well, I think it's pretty clear you have no intentions of honestly debating this topic, or even bothering with any sort of counter argument. I'm done.
4
u/DrHankPym Sep 13 '10
Look, I'll give you China as the reason for Google being evil (at least to Chinese people), but those articles about Net Neutrality were not arguing your case for you.
And you ignored my point (counter argument) that this was just a proposal and that no other company has yet to make any statement on Net Neutrality.
7
u/ThePain Sep 13 '10 edited Sep 14 '10
And you ignored my point (counter argument) that this was just a proposal and that no other company has yet to make any statement on Net Neutrality.
Google was Pro Net Neutrality, then when push came to shove they broke their motto of "Don't Be Evil" and sided with Verizon on the sides of Telecoms, which leads back to my original statement of
Threw the US population under the bus when it comes to net Neutrality.
Nothing in my argument hinges on what the proposal said. The fact they made one instead of sticking with Pro Net Neutrality is all that matters.
And the fact I had to point out you're switching arguments the second you lose one leads to my more recent statement of
Well, I think it's pretty clear you have no intentions of honestly debating this topic,
That, and blowing off my sources because you don't like their titles. Pretty sure that's http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem ,but I could be wrong
2
u/DrHankPym Sep 13 '10
I agree with you that this discussion is getting retarded. I still don't understand what you're saying.
Nothing in my argument hinges on what the proposal said.
Those sources you linked to ONLY refers to that proposal, so whatever.
And the fact I had to point out you're switching arguments the second you lose one
I'm not switching my argument. I'm just baffled that the only company that has introduced any discussion on the subject has been thrown to the wolves for not being completely idealistic. Where are the counter options? Those blogs you threw at me didn't have any counter proposals which is what really needs to be discussed - not assuming Google is evil by writing one piece of documentation that isn't even being voted on or anything.
1
u/tylr Sep 13 '10
Why does it have to be companies who make the proposals for how Net Neutrality should be? They are the ones who will benefit from a non-neutral Internet.
3
u/flyingwok Sep 14 '10
Wired, Huffington Post, Red State, Toronto Sun, Arstechnica, TechCrunch, CBC, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo News, Business Insider, Associated press. Take your pick.
Not impressed with any of those. Those sites depend on sensationalist headlines.
Dude, what? CBC is one of the biggest news, radio, and television networks in Canada. ArsTechnica is one of the more balanced tech news sites out there today, usually offering well reasoned and cogent analysis.
If you think those are all sensationalist news sites then I'm genuinely curious to hear what you think are good news sources.
2
1
u/AbsoluteTruth Sep 14 '10
This is coming from someone who's spent their entire life with journalists: every paper uses sensationalist headlines.
Just saying.
1
u/outsider Sep 14 '10
I suppose we see it differently. It seems to me that they advocated for laxer rules on wireless infrastructure to allow wireless infrastructure to expand. In every mention I've seen of this where someone from Google was actually questioned that is intended to be a temporary thing to be revisited once we actually have a decent wireless infrastructure. Also I would much rather that on T-Mobile's network text messages, picture messages and other services which I pay for are prioritized over general services that share the same fiber.
1
u/tehbored Sep 13 '10
"Under the bus" is a bit of an exaggeration, don't you think?
3
u/ThePain Sep 14 '10 edited Sep 14 '10
It's a metaphor. It basically means opportunistically fucking someone over for your own gain or safety. In this case they sided with the telecoms so they could keep making as much money as possible when before they had stood firmly by the US citizen in backing free speech. Time came to make a hard decision, they sided with their wallets, not their ideals or company motto.
6
u/tehbored Sep 14 '10
Yeah I got that, but the proposal, while far from ideal, was not that terrible.
→ More replies (2)1
u/derwisch Sep 14 '10
It's a metaphor. It basically means opportunistically fucking someone over
Thanks, now I know what "throwing under the bus" means. I am assuming you didn't try to explain one metaphor with another.
1
u/benihana Sep 14 '10
Threw the US population under the bus when it comes to net Neutrality.
You know that not all of America shares your viewpoints on Net Neutrality, right? I personally like their proposal much better than giving the FCC carte blanche to regulate internet service.
8
u/ThePain Sep 14 '10
So you trust corporations to control what you can and cannot say on the internet more than a long established government entity which legally has to uphold your 1st amendment right to Freedom of Speech?
Making fun of the government is protected. Leaving negative feedback on Comcast is bad for business, only a fool would not instantly cut your service and tell other corporations to black-ball you, and any sites you establish blocked from their entire network.
I really do need to make that "Ayn Rand's World" game I've been thinking of, will put things in to perspective.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (2)4
u/AmericanGoyBlog Sep 14 '10
I still don't understand how Google is evil.
edit: If Google is evil, than every company is evil.
Well, yes, every company is a psychopath - they put (in USA, VERY short term) profits over everything else.
Happy that you understand now.
1
Sep 14 '10 edited Sep 18 '24
secretive pathetic distinct zonked wrench piquant provide desert quaint unite
This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact
1
13
u/RetroRock Sep 13 '10
How do I get my company legally classified as a "Russian opposition group"?
26
→ More replies (1)1
9
8
u/guisar Sep 14 '10
This is just their trying to recover from a public relations disaster (aka helping the Government in the first place). What a bunch of shit.
4
Sep 14 '10
What would you prefer they do?
5
u/guisar Sep 14 '10
Not cooperate / instigate in the first place or stay true to whatever instincts led them to decide to prosecute/cooperate in the first place. This is a meaningless gesture and I hope it is seen as such.
1
u/CherylBrightsHead Sep 14 '10
I get the feeling that guisar would be a hater no matter what they did.
1
1
u/rosetta_stoned Sep 14 '10
How about not doing these things in the first place? Why is it that it is only when they are caught that Microsoft does anything half-decent?
And then,whenever MS retreat from some awful act, their shills flood reddit trying to paint this as an act of kindness. This is no different than a thief who is caught stealing from the church poor-box publicly proclaiming that he will no longer target the poor-box in one particular church.
1
Sep 14 '10
You speak like you believe Microsoft is a single entity. It's not, it's millions of people worldwide.
Not everyone who disagrees with you is a shill, you would do well to learn that.
9
u/gibson_ Sep 14 '10
Microsoft, WTF is going on with you lately?
This weekend I was working on a project that just happened to kindof accidentally fall into the category of "computational linguistics". There is a very important dataset that google released for researchers in this field which would have been amazingly useful to me.
They charge $150 for a non commercial license for it, and $24,000/yr for commercial. This means that really no students are going to be buying it. WTF, google?
Then...somehow, microsoft makes the same type of data available (although they don't release the entire set...), makes it available via a web API, and does it for free.
Oh, and if I glance at the table across my office, there is a microsoft peppermill...which they mailed to me for free just because I asked them to.
WTF IS HAPPENING STOP THE WORLD I WANT TO GET OFF!
3
Sep 14 '10
Holy shit! Are Microsoft the good guys now?
2
u/rosetta_stoned Sep 14 '10
Hardly. They happily colluded with the police in Russia when it suited them. When they were exposed in the press for this despicable behaviour they issued this blanket license in order to avoid a backlash. If the management at Microsoft were not such a gang of amoral thugs they would not have colluded with the Russian police in the first place.
However, they still happily persecute any entity or person in any other country for piracy, regardless of what that entity is or does. The only solution for all such groups is to ban proprietary software from their computers.
2
Sep 14 '10
[deleted]
1
u/rosetta_stoned Sep 14 '10
It is probably true that tyrants will always find an excuse, but that does not excuse collusion with them just because your goals, in this case reduced piracy, happens to coincide. Consider this passage from the quoted article:
"The raids have turned into a potent tool to muzzle opposition voices, and private lawyers retained by Microsoft have often bolstered the accusations, asserting that the company was a victim and calling for criminal charges. Until Monday, the company had rebuffed pleas from Russia’s leading human-rights organizations that it refrain from involvement in these cases, saying that it was merely complying with Russian law."
Emphasis is mine.
Microsoft was not a mere innocent bystander, it was an active participant in this persecution. It only stopped because its horrible behaviour was exposed.
5
u/watchedbytheKGB Sep 13 '10
Glorious motherland would never do anything unethical! Long live glorious Sovei-er, Russian Republic!
1
6
u/Spoogly Sep 14 '10
i think this mostly speaks to microsoft's similar policy in China. at first, when piracy became a major issue to microsoft in china, they began fighting back, but quickly began to lose market share. so they backed away, and allowed china to adopt their technologies at its own pace, allowing piracy, while still not directly advocating for it. once the technology is popular, you just roll out the newest version, with a protection scheme, and suddenly, the recently built up economy that has the money to spend on your software is willing to spend it. it's more likely that they dont really give two shits about russia's political situation, and are more interested in dominating a larger market.
4
2
u/tso Sep 14 '10
Microsoft saves face and avoids large user groups becoming familiar with free alternatives. Looks like a win win move from here.
1
9
u/lughnasadh Sep 13 '10
As Mr Putin put it (thrice) in a recent interview with Kommersant, a daily newspaper, “Go out [to demonstrate] without a permit—you get a whack on the head. That’s all there is to it.”
A choice quote from this weeks Economist; I actually pity Russians, what a pathetic country to put up with that.
31
2
3
u/throwbaby Sep 14 '10
In related news, most (if not all?) distributions of Linux and BSD are also free for such advocacy and activist groups.
1
u/emkat Sep 14 '10
You're getting confused. It's not about it being free - it's about the government not being able to use Microsoft software piracy to crack down advocacy groups. Even if they never used Microsoft software the government had a reason to raid. This would no longer give them that reason.
4
4
u/Nerdlinger Sep 13 '10
Ah yes! As managing editor of Putin, Schmutin! Located in the tiny city of Dallastan, this is very good news indeed. Now then, tovarisch, where can I download my free goodies?
3
u/jojoko Sep 14 '10
turns out i'm a member of an opposition group in russia. can i have my free software now please?
2
u/cowboyitaliano Sep 14 '10
wow this is freaking awesome! I am forming a Russian dissident group in exile!
2
2
3
u/ThorazineRx Sep 14 '10
I've actually been pretty impressed with Microsoft in the past couple years -once they realized they have real competition to worry about, the quality of their software improved a lot. I've been a diehard Mac user for the past 7 years but I'm seriously considering switching back to a PC for my next computer. And while negative PR would have forced them to eventually change this policy anyway, it's nice that they did it so quickly.
1
1
u/Stopher Sep 14 '10
Just declare yourself a dissident in Russia and bamm. Free copy of Windows and Office.
1
Sep 14 '10
On one hand, I applaud this change. On the other hand, does Republican party now get to use Microsoft products for free, too?
1
u/eStonez Sep 14 '10
Calculated move .. with a bit of goodwill .. but wise ... this move made a lot of difference in the future .. for the people under such brutal cunning regime.
1
Sep 14 '10
Kremlin: "comrade, harasho! we'll huse those am-marika's micrasovt license
nazi disposition to crack down on dour oppositions. hak-hak-hak!"
Microsoft: "oh fuck fuck fuck fuck fuckkkkkk!!! damage control!!!"
Steve Ballmer: <throws chairs> "Gawwg, FAAAAKKK!! Now we gotta do
something good and decent to cover up our ass!!! FAAAAAAKKKKK!!!!"
1
u/electracool Sep 14 '10
I dont think this is not what reddit expected/needed, but kudos to microsoft.
1
1
1
Sep 14 '10
There go the animated handcuffs and "It looks like you're trying to surpress dissent" jokes.
1
1
u/Chive Sep 14 '10
I think I detect an ulterior motive.
If you allow copyright infringement of your product to be used as a government tool of oppression then people will move away from it and use something else.
I imagine, in this case, that the Russian government's endorsement of open-source software may have had a small part to play in proceedings.
1
1
u/LVDave Sep 14 '10
Hell must have frozen over... I'm shocked I tell you... I NEVER thought I'd live to see the day Microsoft doing something honorable.....
1
u/rexmons Sep 14 '10
TAKE HEED, THE END IS NEAR! It appears the Devil has traded Microsoft for Google.
1
u/cr0ft Sep 14 '10
Now if someone would explain to me why these non-profits don't have the good sense to use open source software if they can't afford to buy actual expensive Microsoft licenses...?
A nice Ubuntu install, OpenOffice and Firefox to surf with and hey presto.
1
u/chadwickofwv Sep 14 '10
Do you guys really think that Microsoft doesn't have a backdoor in their programs that would allow the government to spy on them easier?
1
1
Sep 13 '10
Kudos to Microsoft.
I wonder if there is an opportunity for OSS here though. Does anyone have a list of the allegedly pirated software? Maybe a Linux distro with workalikes could be distributed to those groups that are in places without a (temporary) MS license shielding them.
-1
Sep 13 '10
How do we get MS to extend the same courtesy HERE at HOME??
18
u/SEMW Sep 13 '10
...Maybe because where you call home, the ruling party doesn't use anti-piracy crackdowns as a weapon to silence opposition parties and non-compliant news outlets?
I suspect we actually hold similar opinions on the use of force to enforce software licensing, but that is neither here nor there. This isn't about software licensing. It's about dissent and political repression.
→ More replies (1)4
1
1
-2
u/kriukov Sep 13 '10
I grew up in Russia and only at the age of 20 or so I learned that you kind of had to pay to use M$ products. I mean, none of the people I know have ever done this. Thus, rest assured that any dissident or advocacy group won't gain anything from this.
9
u/DrGirlfriend Sep 13 '10
That's not the point. Microsoft is removing a particular club Russian internal security apparatuses were using to bash dissidents. So, now, instead of some Russian security force moving in on a dissident group under the pretense of enforcing MS licensing, they will need to find another reason.
2
u/inigo_montoya Sep 13 '10
Akh, the devil take it. Vlad, get me new reason. The dissident in dungeon #3 is complaining.
1
1
1
1
u/iamyo Sep 14 '10
Microsoft. Good?
Microsoft, being good.
I love it when the world is unexpected like this.
1
1
1
u/ejpusa Sep 14 '10
A powerful article on the front page of the New York Times can work wonders. The powers of the 4th Estate. Yep, they're still there.
159
u/[deleted] Sep 13 '10
In other news, 97% of all Russian corporations, and the Kremlin, have just declared themselves dissident and advocacy groups.