The prices of Microsoft's OS are yet another disgrace and bear little or no relation to what is charged in the USA.

The bilking of Europe and elsewhere is getting ridiculous, no wonder people 'pirate'.

So does this case mean other countries can use pirated software and get away with it. This is where it all starts.

How can anyone else in Russian be convicted of piracy if one person is allowed to walk?

Good, let the students get a chance to use acceptable software. Obviously, out of reach from Russian Gov funding!

You have to love the good old "I didn't know" defense. You have to wonder though is this a shortcoming in the legal system?

I wonder is Saddam would have gotten away with his crimes with the "I didn't know" plea?

Originally posted by Unfocused:

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You have to love the good old "I didn't know" defense. You have to wonder though is this a shortcoming in the legal system?

I wonder is Saddam would have gotten away with his crimes with the "I didn't know" plea?

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lolz

He probably really didn't know tho, i mean he bought 12 computers for the school and the OS was pre-installed, even over toward to the west of the world it is common practice and you can be sure onl;y about 1 in 5 users even know that the OS might possibly be pirated.

who cares? we europeans have been getting robbed blind compared to the prices for software and hardware in the states, i am sure there are plenty of ppl out there who could make a good life for themselves if they had the means of getting the best tools for the job, piracy legislation sucks and only further pushes the barrier between the rich and the poor, not getting the best stuff to the ppl who need it most but cant afford it...

it was for the kids. who cares

Originally posted by Unfocused:

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You have to love the good old "I didn't know" defense. You have to wonder though is this a shortcoming in the legal system?

I wonder is Saddam would have gotten away with his crimes with the "I didn't know" plea?

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that excuse works for bush all the time.

fact: there are lots of people being "robbed blind" all over the world all the time. We do that to each other. When ever we see anything vaguely altruistic folks immediately become suspicious and start looking for the money making mechanism which "must" be there somewhere.

The biggest robbers don't give a continental about what we do because they control most of what goes on. That is until enough folks get riled enough to get up off their arses to do something about whatever riled them.

Mostly, though, we are too disorganised to do anything or we aren't riled enough at the same time.

Have you noticed that when the ocean of us starts to move in an organised or semi-organised manner the the so-called "authorities" and "power-that-be" start to shit themselves.

Notice, if you will, that many of the so-called anti-terror laws are designed to stop anyone becoming organised.

When a billion people move then there aren't enough police, army, politicians etc to stop them.

A few rule because of keystones; remove those and the whole lot will come tumbling down. But have a really good think about the possible consequences for you as an individual person, family, or community.

As long as "ordinary" people keep blowing hot air in a disjointed manner and the "guardians of peace" keep scanning all communications for key words nothing much will change as we collectively go down the gurgler.

If anything i would expect giving it too schools would be overlooked cause they are helping kids. It did deserve to get thrown out and be called trivial.

No the Russian prosecutors should have fined the school district and screwed the kids education up. They should have to write on stone tablets because there school cant afford to but 50 genuine copies of windows for better education. Give me a break how can it even come into question when a child's eucation is at stake I hope they blew a pile of money on the trial and then Ponosov got to take a steaming shit on the courthouse steps while dealing pirated copies of windows to fourth graders. They aren't rich so let's really do them up the hoop. I bet if it was the school where the kids were now granted access to a better education beacuse of a little help it would not be in question.

Originally posted by jzncarter:

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we europeans have been getting robbed blind compared to the prices for software and hardware in the states...

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Right. We, in the States, didn't have to pay anything to be the center of social, political, & economic progress for the whole world. So we should just give away anything we develop so those, who didn't stand up for themselves 200 years ago, can enjoy the fruits of the system they either never wanted, or tried to crush.

It's really simple: if you want to be able to buy US products at US prices, overthrow your government & apply for statehood. Easy. That's exactly what we did. It worked!

Quote:

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Originally posted by jzncarter:

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we europeans have been getting robbed blind compared to the prices for software and hardware in the states...

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Right. We, in the States, didn't have to pay anything to be the center of social, political, & economic progress for the whole world. So we should just give away anything we develop so those, who didn't stand up for themselves 200 years ago, can enjoy the fruits of the system they either never wanted, or tried to crush.

It's really simple: if you want to be able to buy US products at US prices, overthrow your government & apply for statehood. Easy. That's exactly what we did. It worked!

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I didn't. One day I just woke up in a hospital in Texas. On my birthday no less.

Quote:

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So we should just give away anything we develop so those, who didn't stand up for themselves 200 years ago, can enjoy the fruits of the system they either never wanted, or tried to crush.

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Sounds like you'd give your support to those guys in the middle east trying to overthrow western imperialism.

Quote:

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Originally posted by jzncarter:

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we europeans have been getting robbed blind compared to the prices for software and hardware in the states...

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Right. We, in the States, didn't have to pay anything to be the center of social, political, & economic progress for the whole world. So we should just give away anything we develop so those, who didn't stand up for themselves 200 years ago, can enjoy the fruits of the system they either never wanted, or tried to crush.

It's really simple: if you want to be able to buy US products at US prices, overthrow your government & apply for statehood. Easy. That's exactly what we did. It worked!

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Folks...let's not turn this into a Geo-Political Ideology discussion (flame-fest) please.

I agree with Dela completely, I totally believe this guy had no idea that these were pirated copies he purchased. Pre-Installed on pre built machines and most people don't have a clue as to how to tell if a copy is pirated anyway! Many people have to be told where to look on the box for the Product Code during any service calls and then they ask..."What's a Product Code and why do I need one?"
This guy could be a complete n00b when it comes to anything more than knowing how to use Word & Excel, so it's completely believable he had no idea what he had bought...and obviously the judge believed that too.
And 12 machines (??)....c'mon now! You could go to any University in the US, take any 500 student laptops at random, and find way more than 12 illegal copies I believe. Now go to one in China and I'd bet you'd find 4 out of five there are pirated copies, so this case was blown WAY out of proportion for 12 copies I think.

But Russia can do that ......bless em......How would the defence for David Hicks go........lol......."I didn't know".....bullshit Hicks.
Hang