Microsoft Moves to Help Nonprofits Avoid Piracy-Linked Crackdowns

[cory777]

Source: NYT

MOSCOW — Microsoft is vastly expanding its efforts to prevent governments from using software piracy inquiries as a pretext to suppress dissent. It plans to provide free software licenses to more than 500,000 advocacy groups, independent media outlets and other nonprofit organizations in 12 countries with tightly controlled governments, including Russia and China.

With the new program in place, authorities in these countries would have no legal basis for accusing these groups of installing pirated Microsoft software.

Microsoft began overhauling its antipiracy policy after The New York Times reported last month that private lawyers retained by the company had often supported law enforcement officials in Russia in crackdowns on outspoken advocacy groups and opposition newspapers.

At first, Microsoft responded to the article by apologizing and saying it would focus on protecting these organizations in Russia from such inquiries.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/world/17russia.html?_r=1

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Activist News http://activistnews.blogspot.com/

[Richard Steele]

1. Kudos to Microsoft for this. K&R

[Confusious]

2. The great Satan does something good.

It'll have to skin 15,000 puppies and kittens and panda bears to make up for this.

[Moonbat2]

3. kind of harsh

[Confusious]

21. Kind of a joke. nt

[melm00se]

4. Working under the assumption

that any businesses' actions are inherently evil and anything otherwise is a mistake.

[Confusious]

22. I only go by experience

20 years of Microsoft beating up on small fry and then to do one good thing does not balance the karma.

[crazyjoe]

7. 2nd post. When I saw the title, I thought for sure the first post would

be the negative one. Guess i was wrong. Just goes to show you that some companies/people/entities can do "no right" in the eyes of some DUers. If Bill Gates provided food for a million out of 2 million earthquake victims, the title of the post would be "Rich guy lets a million go without food". :-)

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

14. Oh, the persecution!

You're the player who owns a bar and wants the space-time continuum to be destroyed, right?

[Confusious]

23. I try to only go by experience

20 years of Microsoft beating up small guys and then to do one good thing does not balance the karma.

[pgodbold]

9. Bitten by a copy of DOS as a child. nt

[femrap]

10. I love that dancing bear...

I do power walks for exercise and I've thought....why don't I just stop right here on the sidewalk and do a little dance which would use more muscles and really get my heart pumping.

I may do that today. Maybe I'll wear my Halloween mask and no one will know what I look like.

[pgodbold]

26. Thank you. Dancing Bear is my friend. He likes you too. nt

[Confusious]

24. Really didn't mind DOS

didn't like their business tactics.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

33. Remember DR-DOS?

"Warning: it appears you bought software from our competitors. It would be a shame if something happened to your computer."

[hobbit709]

5. there's a better cure-Linux

[harmonicon]

6. an even better cure is not giving a shit

Sure, Linux is free to share and I'm sure most of these places getting the donated microsoft software could use it and freeware applications to get their work done, but I don't know that that would stop meaningless raids. In the current climate, one could just falsely accuse someone of having the MS stuff to warrant an illegal search. It's like these new guilty-when-accused "piracy" laws related to internet access in France (and too soon other countries). This is going the wrong direction, but I have to assume, based on reason, that things will move the other way in my lifetime.

What I mean about "not giving a shit" is that even ideas that the free exchange of information being illegal will go away. It's like learning about these laws that say things like "no donkeys in bathtubs on wednesdays"... or, more recently, sodomy laws. I think using Linux could help some people come to this way of thinking, but it doesn't change the mindset in itself.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

15. That's the correct answer. Besides, that helps the groups nearly nothing.

They'll just accuse them of having pirated software from other company, like Adobe or Autodesk or any of the other thousands of companies that make proprietary software. Or pirated MP3. (When the RIAA waives THAT, I'll wear a Carmen Miranda hat and dance naked in the middle of the street.)

[harmonicon]

18. it'll happen sooner or later

Groups like the RIAA having nothing to do with the production of music. Once the vast majority of money in music moves away from corporations that support the RIAA they will cease to exist. I don't know if that will take 5 years or 50, but it will happen. The technology isn't going to go away, and just like "home taping is killing music" didn't work, these new attempts to quash file sharing won't work either.

[crazyjoe]

8. The Google OS is pretty cool as well. I have it running on a virtual

machine. It is basically just a web browser operating system, but if you think about it, isn't that all most users need? I have to admit, I am a huge google fan, I use their calendar, the docs are great, and picasa of course. I also like the fact that your documents are on their servers, so they are available to you no matter where your at or whose computer your on.
I don't see a down side to it, but maybe I just haven't considered all situations, can anyone help me out with that? what haven't i thought of?

[Fearless]

13. They don't have a lovely track record suppressing dissent for China or anything...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_China#Controversies

[crazyjoe]

32. ok, what's your point?

[harmonicon]

19. you don't see a downside to having no control over who has access to your documents? nt

[crazyjoe]

27. I guess if someone wants to know when i get my teeth cleaned they can hack my calender

[harmonicon]

28. so, eaves-dropping is ok, because you have nothing to hide?

That was the right-wing argument in favor of Bush's all-encompassing wire tapping program. A widespread acceptance of that mentality is what will lead us to living in a police state.

[crazyjoe]

29. Well, no of course not. I guess my point is I use google docs

and calender for certain things, like dentist appts and christmas card lists. I wouldn't put anything up there that I wouldn't want anyone to see, like my banking stuff or my prescription info for example.
The fact is, in today's society, there is no privacy anymore. you need to use your stop and shop card to get the sale prices, discounts on gas, ect. So, they know exactly what and when we are buying. I can't buy a pair of shoes anymore without being hounded to sign up for the "proffered customer" card, so they can track our every move.
they put all that info into a computer, and a scarily accurate profile comes out the other side.
Even the government, promised SS #'s would not be used as some kind of identification # straight out of "1984". So much for that promise.
I guess my point is, I give up. I'm not going to worry about it, and in a way harmonicon, as I think about it while I'm typing, I guess the answer is yes, eaves-dropping is ok, because I have nothing to hide.
Now I don't mean it's ok as in I agree with it, I mean it's ok as in I'm not going to worry about it, there is really nothing I or you can do about it at this point. I mean, how much trouble you going to go to to make sure nobody knows what brand of cottage cheese you like, or what size underwear you wear?

Oh, and lets be fair, Obama has done nothing to stop wiretapping. In fact, it has been expanded under his watch. You just don't hear about it anymore because the people who were so offended by it seem strangely quiet now, just like the anti war crowd.
Makes us look a bit hypocritical I think.
But, that's another discussion....

[harmonicon]

31. Oh, yeah, I make no apologies for the current government's actions.

However, I do refuse to give up. It completely creeps me out that there are repeated stories about personal data being leaked by facebook, but people keep on using it. I've never signed up to it, and I never will. I've very particular about what information is available about me online (almost none). As for things like those "loyalty" cards; I refuse to use them. Luckily, most places where I live don't engage in those kind of practices. I remember it being a serious pain when I lived in LA, but I still held out. I guess I'm an idealist about these things, but it doesn't seem crazy to me, because the solutions are so simple.

[Regret My New Name]

11. Evil MS will do anything to force their software on the unwilling...

now they are forcing non-profits to use their software by giving them a legal out.

Sick fuckers...

[ManiacJoe]

16. You have an odd definition of "forcing".

[Regret My New Name]

20. How much does MS pay you to defend them on the internet?

[ManiacJoe]

25. Nothing, dammit. I need to look into that.

While I am doing that, you should check your reading comprehension to see if you can find where I actually defended them.

What I actually did was question your definition of "force". Feel free to clarify your post.

[LanternWaste]

30. I imagine many people feel compelled...

I imagine many people feel compelled to attribute the difference of mere opinion to more nefarious and complex means.

[Love Bug]

12. I take back every rotten thing I've ever said about Microsoft!

Good for them!

[DainBramaged]

17. OOH OOH CAN I GET FREE SOFTWARE TOO????

[windowpilot]

34. Microsoft is in it for Microsoft.

Don't trust Billy.