Russia's War on Piracy/Malicious Software

tmk writes "Russian minister Leonid Reiman has announced new legislation to fight software piracy. According to official information the share of pirated software in the Russian Federation decreased in the last years from 90 to 60 percent. Reiman dismissed as a myth the impression that many viruses originate in his country: 'Viruses are written all over the world. Russia is waging a consistent and successful war on malicious software.' Reiman calls for an international organization to fight Internet crime. Last year Russia agreed to take down Allofmp3 after the United States intervened."

Re:Allofmp3

[bockelboy]

Uh... you've never been to Russia, have you?

Walk to the subway station, and there are about 5 vendors who will happily sell you pirated version of any music CD, most DVDs, and almost any software for $5.

While there are plenty of people who download software in the US, you'll have a hard time finding that sort of rampant piracy in the US.

In fact, in Russia, I only remember one store where I could buy non-pirated CDs. The piracy isn't even the same order of magnitude.

Re:War on piracy...pffft!

[richie2000]

What we need is a war on copyright. That's your REAL piracy, right there. The only legitimate issue is plagiarism. Everything else is no different from the old railroad monopolies maintaining their turf. It is pure robbery.

That's only too true. Fortunately, there are some freedom fighters left: http://pirate-party.us/ [pirate-party.us] , http://www2.piratpartiet.se/international/english [piratpartiet.se]

Re:Stop the slanting

[Anonymous Coward]

OED:

2. The unauthorized reproduction or use of an invention or work of another, as a book, recording, computer software, intellectual property, etc., esp. as constituting an infringement of patent or copyright; plagiarism; an instance of this.
[1654 J. MENNES Recreation for Ingenious Head-peeces clxxvi, All the wealth, Of wit and learning, not by stealth, Or Piracy, but purchase got.] 1700 E. WARD Journey to Hell II. vii. 14 Piracy, Piracy, they cry'd aloud, What made you print my Copy, Sir, says one, You're a meer Knave, 'tis very basely done. 1770 P. LUCKOMBE Conc. Hist. Printing 76 They..would suffer by this act of piracy, since it was likely to prove a very bad edition. 1855 D. BREWSTER Mem. Life I. Newton (new ed.) I. iv. 71 With the view of securing his invention of the telescope from foreign piracy. 1886 Cent. Mag. Feb. 629/1 That there are many publishers who despise such piracy..does not remove the presumption that publishers and papermakers have been influential opponents of an equitable arrangement. 1977 Gramophone Apr. 1527/3 Governments have begun to realize that unauthorized reproduction of records (so-called piracy) adversely affects also the rights of..composers, authors and performers. 1996 China Post (Taipei) 1 May 16/3 Authorities here said they have cracked down on piracy in recent years, but foreign computer firms claim they are still soft on piracy.

The term "piracy" has been used in this context for centuries. Nobody, reading about piracy as in copyright infringement, makes any mental association with the original definition of pirate in any way, since the alternate definition is something they have grown up with. If you want proof, just look at The Pirate Bay. If they honestly thought there would be serious negative connotations, would they name it that? It's not like the term "theft", where there are valid reasons to argue it (e.g., the fact that theft is still a very real problem in people's minds, thus equating the two could sway their opinion). Get over it.

Re:Copyright and fascism

[Anonymous Coward]

GPL users aren't copyrightists - the FSF line has always been "Without copyright, the GPL would be unenforceable. It would also be unnecessary.". Using copyright doesn't make you a copyrightist - supporting copyright law does.

As to hurting american jobs? So what - you're making the classic "broken window fallacy" error. Should we all smash windows to keep glaziers employed?

And do bear in mind that international opinion of the USA is at an all-time low - there are plenty of people who wouldn't normally even think to infringe copyright, but once they hear america claiming that doing so might hurt USA's interests, they do so with abandon,