March 26, 2007 at 12:41Pirate Remedy
Police found a pirate vulnerability - it is increasingly checking software at companies and departments. Since the confiscation of computers with suspicious software for such users is fraught with stopping the whole thing, many of them rushed to buy licensed software.
Police and prosecutors have stepped up checks on the legality of computer programs used by Russian companies and departments. The Law Agency under the Nonprofit Partnership of Software Product Suppliers, which carries out an examination of the legality of software (software) at the request of the prosecutor’s office, is literally littered with the computers seized from users. About this “Vedomosti” said the deputy director of the partnership Anna Lavrinova.
According to the director of the Chelyabinsk textile mill Vladimir Kalinichenko, the work of managing the mill has been paralyzed for more than a month after February 20, after prosecutors in the Kurchatov district of Chelyabinsk seized eight computers. He says that the factory reported the pirate origin of these programs to the plant on February 15, and on February 20, the day of the check, he paid the invoice for the purchase of licenses from an official Microsoft dealer, but this did not stop prosecutors. An investigator from the Kurchatov district prosecutor’s office, Dmitry Basalgin, told Vedomosti that the prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case under part 2 of article 146 of the Criminal Code, “Illegal use of copyright objects committed on a particularly large scale”.
Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Bashkortostan and investigators from the local prosecutor’s office recently conducted a similar check in the Ufa branch of the Capital LK insurance company, Vedomosti confirmed the company's financial director Vsevolod Terentyev. According to him, the programs on the company's computers were unlicensed, although insurers entered into an agreement with the supplier on the purchase of computers with pre-installed licensed software. Terentyev said that the prosecutor opened a criminal case against the supplier, and the computers that were later returned to the insurance company will serve as physical evidence.
In March, police and prosecutors conducted mass inspections of insurers, Iolanta Prantskevichene, legal adviser to the Business Software Manufacturers Alliance (BSA), which united the world's largest computer program developers, told Vedomosti earlier. And the deputy head of Rosstrakhnadzor Vladimir Ionkin promised that his department would itself verify the legality of the insurers' software, because the seizure of computers by the police threatens the financial stability of insurance companies.
According to one of the Ufa businessmen, law enforcement agencies were engaged not only in insurers - computers were recently seized and property of one of the city travel agencies was seized. The search for counterfeit programs is hardly particularly difficult - according to IDC, in 2006 the average level of piracy among companies in Russia was 71%, including in the food industry - 80%, in design and advertising - 76%, in design and production - 74%, and the most disciplined sectors were oil and gas - 66%, as well as banks and insurers - 60%.
The activity of the police has led to an increase in the income of program developers. Sales of licensed Windows and Office in Russia over the past month have risen sharply, admits Microsoft's PR manager Kira Kiryukhina. Business Development Director of Ultra Elecronics Sergey Suvorov said that now in Russia it is not easy to find Vista, the latest version of Windows. “From the beginning of the year, softkey.ru in our store has sharply increased orders for software from enterprises and government agencies,” said Softkey CEO Felix Muchnik, “and it’s obvious in their structure that companies conduct an inventory of the legality of software on computers and buy the missing licenses.”
Source: Vedomosti
Police and prosecutors have stepped up checks on the legality of computer programs used by Russian companies and departments. The Law Agency under the Nonprofit Partnership of Software Product Suppliers, which carries out an examination of the legality of software (software) at the request of the prosecutor’s office, is literally littered with the computers seized from users. About this “Vedomosti” said the deputy director of the partnership Anna Lavrinova.
According to the director of the Chelyabinsk textile mill Vladimir Kalinichenko, the work of managing the mill has been paralyzed for more than a month after February 20, after prosecutors in the Kurchatov district of Chelyabinsk seized eight computers. He says that the factory reported the pirate origin of these programs to the plant on February 15, and on February 20, the day of the check, he paid the invoice for the purchase of licenses from an official Microsoft dealer, but this did not stop prosecutors. An investigator from the Kurchatov district prosecutor’s office, Dmitry Basalgin, told Vedomosti that the prosecutor’s office opened a criminal case under part 2 of article 146 of the Criminal Code, “Illegal use of copyright objects committed on a particularly large scale”.
Employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Bashkortostan and investigators from the local prosecutor’s office recently conducted a similar check in the Ufa branch of the Capital LK insurance company, Vedomosti confirmed the company's financial director Vsevolod Terentyev. According to him, the programs on the company's computers were unlicensed, although insurers entered into an agreement with the supplier on the purchase of computers with pre-installed licensed software. Terentyev said that the prosecutor opened a criminal case against the supplier, and the computers that were later returned to the insurance company will serve as physical evidence.
In March, police and prosecutors conducted mass inspections of insurers, Iolanta Prantskevichene, legal adviser to the Business Software Manufacturers Alliance (BSA), which united the world's largest computer program developers, told Vedomosti earlier. And the deputy head of Rosstrakhnadzor Vladimir Ionkin promised that his department would itself verify the legality of the insurers' software, because the seizure of computers by the police threatens the financial stability of insurance companies.
According to one of the Ufa businessmen, law enforcement agencies were engaged not only in insurers - computers were recently seized and property of one of the city travel agencies was seized. The search for counterfeit programs is hardly particularly difficult - according to IDC, in 2006 the average level of piracy among companies in Russia was 71%, including in the food industry - 80%, in design and advertising - 76%, in design and production - 74%, and the most disciplined sectors were oil and gas - 66%, as well as banks and insurers - 60%.
The activity of the police has led to an increase in the income of program developers. Sales of licensed Windows and Office in Russia over the past month have risen sharply, admits Microsoft's PR manager Kira Kiryukhina. Business Development Director of Ultra Elecronics Sergey Suvorov said that now in Russia it is not easy to find Vista, the latest version of Windows. “From the beginning of the year, softkey.ru in our store has sharply increased orders for software from enterprises and government agencies,” said Softkey CEO Felix Muchnik, “and it’s obvious in their structure that companies conduct an inventory of the legality of software on computers and buy the missing licenses.”
Source: Vedomosti