[lg policy] MSKGB? Microsoft and the Secret Police

[Dennis Baron]

There's a new post on the Web of Language:

MSKGB? Microsoft and the Secret Police
Sunday’s New York Times reports that the Microsoft Corporation is helping the Russian police go after computers that may contain pirated Microsoft software. Software piracy is rampant in Russia, but the computers that the police are targeting just happen to belong to groups protesting Russian government policies, or to newspapers critical of government actions. Groups supporting the government have been left alone, even if they have pirated copies of Word or Excel on their machines. . . .

The Times reports that Microsoft lawyers, often local Russian attorneys working for Microsoft, complain that their company is being victimized by groups using pirated software, and they routinely support the police raids and appear in court to encourage criminal prosecution of the accused. Microsoft insists that the company must comply with Russian law while at the same time “protect[ing] our products from piracy.”

Read the full article on the Web of Language: http://bit.ly/weblan 
____________________
Dennis Baron
Professor of English and Linguistics
Department of English                    
University of Illinois 
608 S. Wright St.
Urbana, IL 61801                                               

office: 217-244-0568
fax: 217-333-4321

http://www.illinois.edu/goto/debaron

read the Web of Language:
http://www.illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage








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