MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Vladimir Simonov) - As a special correspondent in London in the mid 1990s, I tried to interview Microsoft's owner during one of his visits to Britain. It was to no avail. The corporation's press service made it clear: Bill Gates wanted nothing to do with Russia, the nursery of intellectual piracy.
That was a long time ago. At the end of 2006, Gates chose to personally come to Moscow to present the new operating system Windows Vista, which is to replace the widespread in Russia and elsewhere Windows XP. He even delivered a lecture on the humankind's digital future to a Moscow audience.
There could be several reasons for this drastic change in the global computer guru's attitude toward Russia. Microsoft has probably realized that the sins committed by Russian pirates could not compromise Russia's huge potential as a legal software market. Which, in fact, means "a Microsoft software market."
Perhaps, Russia has stopped irritating Gates since Microsoft's human resource department told him that one out of four programmers working for him was Russian, from the new emigration wave. Moreover, Russia is quickly becoming the leader in outsourcing, a new globalization phenomenon, i.e. the development of original computer software abroad. According to America's Market Visio/EDS, the Russian market of offshore programming has long exceeded $500 million. This is not as much as India and China have achieved, but Russia has an unprecedented growth rate of 50% annually.
All this could have played a part in Gates's decision to bring the glossy box with Window Vista, which the world had waited for over five years, to Moscow personally. The new system is available in Russian stores at 1,800 rubles ($70) for Vista Basic and 5,800 rubles ($220) for Vista Ultimate with all possible bonuses.
However, most Russian PC owners say that the new product benefits Microsoft itself more than the users of the operating system. While praising Vista's new interface with its 3D windows and other impressive graphics, Russians lament that all these beautiful trifles encourage you to throw your old computer away and buy a new one, with a 2.5GHz processor and at least 1Gb of operating memory. And with Windows Vista, of course.
Microsoft has done what carmakers do every year: it has renewed the lineup. But have the users received new comforts or security guarantees? Or is it just a polished exterior of the previous system and Microsoft itself?
First of all, Vista's creators want to tempt users with the built-in international protection from outside penetration. Clearly, this means that you will not need to buy additional anti-virus software. Russia, which has one of the most successful anti-virus software developers, Kaspersky Lab, took the news with great interest.
Unfortunately, Microsoft's new product cannot cope with malicious codes. An independent test showed that 21 out of 25 the most dangerous viruses could easily overcome Vista's barriers. We can only sympathize with the users who decide to save on anti-virus software after updating the operating system.
Russian hackers were also quick to prove that Vista is not able to protect itself yet. A pirated copy of Vista with a fake license valid until 2099 can be bought at Moscow kiosks for 150-200 rubles (about $8). However, as the country is committed to joining the WTO, the Russian authorities are mounting a campaign against such talents, seeking to shut down not only kiosks, but also the facilities that produce avalanches of pirated CDs and DVDs. At the end of 2006, the Russian parliament adopted a section of the Civil Code that envisages new tough measures designed to protect intellectual property.
However, as is often the case in Russia, the law-enforcement mechanism is sometimes inclined to translate new legal acts into life thoughtlessly. The latest example has already become a national sensation. A village school principal, Alexander Ponosov, is on trial in the Perm territory, for buying computers with a pirated version of Windows installed for his school.
It did not occur to him to check the authenticity of the software. He does not even have enough technical knowledge for that. Now, however, he is facing five years in prison. The plaintiff in the case is a representative of Microsoft Russia, seeking to add 266,000 rubles from the principal's miserable wage (by Western standards) to the corporation's multibillion revenues.
The formal approach to this case outraged Russian society so much that the first question asked at President Vladimir Putin's recent news conference in the Kremlin was about Ponosov. The reply could be of interest to both Gates and everyone who does not like the spread of intellectual piracy in Russia. Putin compared the problem of intellectual rights protection with struggle against drug addiction:
"Of course, we will honor our commitments and our policies will seek to protect intellectual rights," he said. "But it should not be done formally. Perhaps, this is not a very good comparison, but as with drug addiction, we should not fight the victims, but those who produce and spread drugs... After all, if it is a bona fide buyer - and there is such a notion in law - it is very easy to convict, but it is always more difficult to get down to the essence of the case."
Putin promised to continue improving legislation to protect intellectual property rights.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and may not necessarily represent the opinions of the editorial board.
