Stewart Rutledge

Bill Gates: 1 | Two Russian Presidents: 0

Following on my post below about Mikhail Gorbachev’s pleas to Bill Gates to show leniency to a Russian school teacher facing prison for piracy charges, Microsoft/Gates indirectly denied Gorbachev. All this even after Vladimir Putin has now decried the charges. Pretty amazing. Microsoft stated: “Mr. Ponosov’s case is a criminal case and as such was […]

Putin
Following on my post below about Mikhail Gorbachev's pleas to Bill Gates to show leniency to a Russian school teacher facing prison for piracy charges, Microsoft/Gates indirectly denied Gorbachev. All this even after Vladimir Putin has now decried the charges. Pretty amazing.

Microsoft stated:

“Mr. Ponosov’s case is a criminal case and as such was initiatedand investigated by the public prosecutor’s office in Russia. We are surethat the Russian courts will make a fair decision.”

“We do respect the Russian government’s position on the importance of protecting intellectual property rights.”

a.k.a. We're not backing down.

This is definitely a clever way to avoid backing off piracy charges, but it does make sense that it's more of a Russian government thing than a Microsoft thing. In the US, if a DA or US Atty. wants to go after a case, a private party's pleas aren't necessarily going to effect a change in course.

Microsoft Spurns Appeal to Intervene in Russian Piracy Case [NY Times via p2pnet]