James Delahunty
27 Mar 2007 8:12
A Russian piracy case against a head teacher has been ordered to go to retrial by a Russian court. Alexander Ponosov was accused of installing pirated copies of a Windows operating system and copies of Microsoft Word on several school computers. He denied the claims and said the software came pre-installed with the computers and that he didn't know it wasn't legitimate. A lower court had dismissed the case as "trivial".
But now a higher court has ruled that it should proceed. The trial has been seen as a response to international pressure to crack down on piracy in Russia. Russia ranks second to China for use of pirated software and music. Russian President Vladimir Putin said previously that the manufacturers of pirated goods should be targeted and not the consumers.
Microsoft has distanced itself from the case, claiming it had nothing to do with the charges and had opted last year not to bring any civil action. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev called upon Microsoft chairman Bill Gates to intervene.
Source:
BBC News