U.S. COMPUTER GIANT TURNS DOWN FORMER SOVIET LEADER'S REQUEST. The
U.S. computer firm Microsoft on February 5 rebuffed an appeal by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev for its chairman, Bill
Gates, to intervene in a Russian court case against a schoolteacher charged with software piracy, the "International Herald Tribune"
reported on February 6. Gorbachev wrote Gates in an open letter recently that Aleksandr Ponosov, who is a schoolteacher in the Urals,
"has dedicated his life to the education of children and receives a modest salary that does not bear comparison with the salaries of even regular staff in your company. [He] is threatened with detention in
Siberian prison camps" for up to five years if convicted. Gorbachev called on Gates to "show indulgence" and drop the charges. In response, Microsoft said in a statement on February 5 that "Mr.
Ponosov's case is a criminal case and as such was initiated and investigated by the public prosecutor's office in Russia. We are sure that the Russian courts will make a fair decision." The statement added, "We do respect the Russian government's position on the importance of protecting intellectual property rights." The case has drawn widespread attention in the Russian media. President Putin alluded to it in his February 1 marathon press conference, when he said that "to grab someone for buying a computer somewhere and start threatening him with prison is...simply ridiculous. The law recognizes the concept of someone who purchased the product in good faith." Putin suggested that the prosecutors should turn their attention instead to those who produce and sell pirated software (see
"RFE/RL Newsline," January 30 and February 1, 2007). Pirated software is widely available in Russia for a tiny fraction of the price of the original, which is beyond the budgets of most ordinary Russians. PM
