How Microsoft Is Helping The Russian Government To Stifle Dissent?

Russia Uses Microsoft to Suppress Dissent -- New York Times

IRKUTSK, Russia — It was late one afternoon in January when a squad of plainclothes police officers arrived at the headquarters of a prominent environmental group here. They brushed past the staff with barely a word and instead set upon the computers before carting them away. Taken were files that chronicled a generation’s worth of efforts to protect the Siberian wilderness.

The group, Baikal Environmental Wave, was organizing protests against Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin’s decision to reopen a paper factory that had polluted nearby Lake Baikal, a natural wonder that by some estimates holds 20 percent of the world’s fresh water.

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My Comment: From my own personal experiences in Russia, I know that all of my family, friends, and business contacts use pirated Microsoft software. Even when I tell my business contacts that the cost for such software is relatively cheap when compared to the consequences of being caught .... no one listens. The cultural mindset in Russia (and in most eastern European countries) is that software should be free.

Will this mindset change .... probably. But for now, the only way that Microsoft can have success in fighting piracy in Russia is via through the cooperation of the Russian government, or they will have to find a way that will piracy impossible. As for the Russian government, they now have an effective tool in shutting down their opponents.