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“The group, Baikal Environmental Wave, was organizing protests against Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin’s decision to reopen a paper factory that had polluted nearby Lake Baikal, a natural wonder that by some estimates holds 20 percent of the world’s fresh water,” Levy reports. “Instead, the group fell victim to one of the authorities’ newest tactics for quelling dissent: confiscating computers under the pretext of searching for pirated Microsoft software.”
“Security officials say the inquiries reflect their concern about software piracy, which is rampant in Russia,” Levy reports. “Yet they rarely if ever carry out raids against advocacy groups or news organizations that back the government.”
Levy reports, “As the ploy grows common, the authorities are receiving key assistance from an unexpected partner: Microsoft itself. In politically tinged inquiries across Russia, lawyers retained by Microsoft have staunchly backed the police.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Please read: Mac users should not buy Microsoft software or hardware.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Wandering Joe” for the heads up.]
In Russia software hack you!
Sad that Micro$oft have to resort to sucking dick. Having said that, I can’t say I’m surprised – anything to prop up their increasingly paper-thin hegemony.
=:~)
Please don’t give the Obama czars any more ideas!
All your computer are ours!
This is the biggest human-rights scandal in the computer industry since IBM was shown to be helping Nazi Germany.
Once again, Microsoft is shown to be a disgusting, evil organization. I would strongly encourage everyone in Russia who has been victimized by Microsoft’s cooperation with the corrupt Russian government to join together in a U.S.-based class action lawsuit against the corporation.
@MDN,
Don’t steal Microsoft software either
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I wonder how hard it would be to use Macs instead of PCs.
If they were to use a Mac instead it might be harder for the Gestapo to use this excuse and it would be doubtful that Apple would want to be associated with this type of action.
@ Mac Daddy,
Gestapo is Fascist. Far right wing.
You were looking for KGB. Communist. Far left wing.
Thank me later.
When in doubt, use Mac or Linux!
Hmm… Microsoft teaming up with police to curb software piracy.. Let’s not buy Microsoft products
MDN is full of douchebags.
Apple does far worse things but you’ll never hear about it on this site.
I think Fred Mertz is really a Mac article reading botnet.
@ An Optimist,
“This is the biggest human-rights scandal in the computer industry since IBM was shown to be helping Nazi Germany.”
Anyone can write a book with those kind of allegations. I guess you could say IBM furthered the abuse of dissidents by selling their personal computer business to Lenovo. Or, we all do by purchasing Apple’s products.
There’s always more to the story.
“I think Fred Mertz is really a Mac article reading botnet.”
He surely can’t be human. No mere mortal could possess his super-human abilities. He’s darn near a Mac demi-god!
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@Big Als MBP
Same difference!
Responding to Big Al
Fascists are actually left wing. Both fascists and communists are left wing. The press lately has spread this bogus view. Both are strong central governments. The perspective was generated during WW2 to support Russia while we fought against Germany.
Strong central governments always devalue life and individual liberty. Look at China, Russia, Turkey, and Germany during WW2. Some govts that feature strong religious leanings like Iran can fall into the same loss of freedoms. Remember our founders view that our freedoms come from God not from Govt.
Macs to me are a way I can work better in my own way.
It’s nice to see MDN going to bat for environmentalists… when it suits them.
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@DudeMac: when in russia use pen and paper or even better -chalkboard
@Jim, don’t be a tool. Software piracy is a thin cover story, to suppress dissidents. Noone supports piracy, but the story is nothing about actual piracy, and the fact that Microsoft is Russia’s stooge is embarassing.
@Sick of Exaggerators
You are clearly ignorant of history… I’ll rephrase that: you are ignorant!
=:~)
Cubert,
If you were married to Ethel, you’d be surfing the Net 24/7, too.
“I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy….I was able to get a sense of his soul.” —George W. Bush, after meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin, June 16, 2001.
I don’t understand, don’t we normally hate the New York Times around here? After all, the former President said he was trustworthy about Mr. Putin who is now Prime Minister and as a former KGB man is very “hands on” in terms of “internal security”.
Or has that changed because the story is about Microsoft?
Sounds more likely that the Russian gov’t is extorting assistance from Microsoft. If M$ doesn’t help, the gov’t will probably block M$ from selling their software in Russia.
Right Wing? Left Wing? Are you guys serious?
There is only the Powerful and Rich and the rest of us serfs.
Dont hide from the truth, (like most North Americans) using this Communist or Fascist crap.
There has only ever been the Rich and the Powerful – Socialism and Capitalism, Communism and Free Market (theres a joke), exist only in University classes and some old books.
The USA is the exemplar of the great Divide. The Rich and the Poor.
Putin is the Russian Bush/Obama/Clinton.
They are ALL the frickin’ same.
Please explain as carefully as you can the difference between “right wing” totalitarian states and “left wing” totalitarian states.
Thank you.
In Practice:
Communism is a one party system that owns all property and controls the economy, they spend a lot of money on a large military, they are state atheists, they plan the economy and do not use supply and demand, they pay all workers the same salary, and watches over the population to make no one becomes a capitalist, they focus more on heavy industry than light industry, believe in collective of farms for the benefit of the population they are usually dictatorships and are state capitalist, they do welfare and are self sufficient, they are sometimes very imperial masking it as “liberation”.
fascism is a one party system that owns all property and controls the economy, they spend a lot of money on a large military, they are extremely religious, they use supply and demand, pay people different salaries, they watch over the population for foreigners, socialists and capitalists, they focus on light industry, state racism, welfare and self sufficiency and are imperialists.
In other words . . . THEY’RE BOTH LEFT WING. Huge government, no personal freedom. There’s no such thing as a “right wing” totalitarian state.
Since Russian government *probably* runs a big cybercrime ring anyway, they could’ve been spying on the environmentalists with worms and viruses for months already. Carting away the PCs is just a tactic to intimidate other dissidents.
Lesson here? As soon as you start using anything MSFT, you are already fighting a losing battle. Hopefully they have backup and offsite storage.
Also with future cloud computing infrastructures, hopefully it becomes harder for governments and corporations to wipe away proof. Sometimes having your data everywhere and profile persists forever is not a bad thing.
“… lawyers retained by Microsoft have staunchly backed the police.”
It’s interesting how psychopaths flock together.
It’s time for a revolution of the SANE. Lock up all psychopaths.
@ Chas,
“… I’ll rephrase that: you are ignorant!”
And you’re a putz. Looks like a draw.
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A generic ‘From Answers.com/WikiAnswers’ quotes:
“In other words . . . THEY’RE BOTH LEFT WING. Huge government, no personal freedom. There’s no such thing as a “right wing” totalitarian state.”
Sorry, but that is an incredibly IGNORANT statement that is entirely counter to history.
This also points out, as usual, the IDIOCY of limiting political thought to a 1-dimensional system, aka ‘right’ versus ‘left’. An entire 2 dimensions are missing from this TardSystem, resulting in dumbass comments such as the above.
What is Totalitarianism: It is a form of Desperation Mode whereby a political system is so dysfunctional that it falls back to the lowest common denominator whereby fools rush in and take over as absolute dictators. It is a psychopathic system by default and hides itself behind a wide variety of rhetoric and propaganda that are used as a mask covering the hyper control freaks beneath. EVERY political system is subject to falling back into the primitive Totalitarian system.
Totalitarianism requires considerable FUD, lies, deceit, abuse, hatred and various other forms of propaganda in order to maintain the illusion of being beneficial to the citizenry. Meanwhile, it is inherently destructive to its citizens as well as its own ruling class. With time all Totalitarian systems degenerate into chaos as the ‘man behind the curtain’ is revealed to be just another nutjob psychopathic control freak. It is an unsustainable system without the constant maintenance of its mask.
∑ = Any dysfunctional political system can degenerate to Totalitarianism with sufficient desperation within the populace and the presence of readily available psychopaths to acquire dictatorship.
A great book on the subject:
The Mask of Sanity – Wikipedia
The Mask of Sanity – The Book
I said: “Totalitarianism requires considerable FUD, lies, deceit, abuse, hatred and various other forms of propaganda in order to maintain the illusion of being beneficial to the citizenry.”
If you live in the USA and you’re not having déja vu concerning a certain ongoing political cult, you’ve got your head in the sand. Wake up kids or you’ll get to enjoy the fruits of Totalitarianism, which are poison.
I lived five years in Moscow. Apple is almost unheard of. Apple in Russia is run by a bunch of lazy, ignorant, dishonest assholes. And I’ll back that up with similar opinions from the tiny number of Apple users whom I used to associate with.
Every bit of software is pirated. Every movie, every CD. No one buys anything genuine. Even the pharmaceuticals are pirated!
The thing I had to keep a closest watch on was the pain-killing morphine prescribed for me by my Southern hemisphere doctor and given to me free by my lovely Southern hemisphere government. Even the Moscow hospital doctors were envious.
We in the West laugh at or sympathize with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq and wring our hands in dismay about North Korea, Burma and Iran. But Russia is not only a failed state too but also a potentially very dangerous one. Putin has a serious personality defect, feeling slighted by the rest of the world at every turn and determined to “punish” us for our failure to accord Russia superstar status.
Microsoft is no more than an ignorant tool in this milieu. Russia will use them then discard them.
It sure is nice to see all the conservation of brain cells going on here. So few neurons get used by posters such as “From Answers.com/WikiAnswers” that they deserve an award.
¡Save the brain — banish critical thinking!
If Baikal Environmental Wave had offsite backups, then they did not lose a generation’s worth of data. Let’s hope they practice safe computing.
As far as the computer seizure goes, Microsoft would be well advised not to let themselves be used as a tool for government strongarm tactics in Russia. That would be one of the few ways that their reputation could decline even further.
Microsoft spent years suppressing innovation. It’s fitting that their software is being used as an excuse for suppression.
There are some serious tea-bagging whack jobs on the loose here today. Some of their posts are hard evidence of the abject failure of the educational system in the US.
Communism and fascism are both left-wing? That’s rich. So, what’s right wing? And just where does socialism fit into this delusional reshuffling of political systems?
If I believed the myth of a holy mother of god, I’d be saying it.
Derek Currie, you need to seek help for psychosis and your delusional paranoia.
@Lookathistory
Our freedoms are inherent do not “come” from anyone, nor are they given by anyone. Our freedoms are fragile – they must be maintained by waging a never ending battle against insidious opponents like the “Patriot Act” and illegal detainment. A strong central government can be a champion of individual rights, as well as an opponent of them. Organized religion can also support or oppose individual rights. But the nature of most religions – believe this way or you are wrong – tends to favor the latter result. That is why our founders were wise to separate church from state, and why federally subsidized “faith-based” initiatives are a very bad idea.
Remember that it is not the majority opinion that drives individual rights. Those very instances in which the majority unite against the individual are the events that demonstrate the importance of the foundational values embodied in our Constitution.
What gets me riled up is people offering Wikipedia as proof of anything. Folks, you can change the information at will! The internet is opinion!
@KingMey:
I don’t know if you are Us American, but your comment here is one of the very few here that really make sense.
Most of the others on totalitarism, communism, fascism prove only the following:
Amercians don’t follow international affairs, American schools are poor and do not open eyes and ears beyond the border of the State, some as far as the boarder of your Nation!
We’ll have to wait another three generations before the beautifull Young country, the Us of A, will have matured to make it worth reading politics realted messages in generalst forums like this one.
iPol from Old Europe
MS = commie bastards! LMAO
This video explains the various forms of government very well:
http://www.wimp.com/thegovernment/
The Empire Strikes Back!
@ llibsetag
Which one?
Silverhawk is correct. (re: Wiki)
As proof of that, in an effort to make that point to my teenage boys, I used our black lab, “Rocky” as an example.
Google this
“How fast can a black lab run?”
Very 1rst hit.
(Unfortunately, after TWO YEARS, someone finally commented. “that is a lie”. But until then it stood uncontested, and very 1rst search result).
db,
I agree with 97% of the video.
The thing is, is that, “00% Gov.” is pure “libertarianism”. “100% Gov. is pure “totalitarianism”.
The idea that these ideas are left/right on a horizontal political spectrum, is false. These ideologies are on a vertical axis.
I will agree, that the “unbalance”, still leads to a political mess.
FWIW,
Haven’t centrists always acheived the best, longest lasting, results?
From the title, I had assumed that Russia was forcing dissenters to use Windows. (And a few Kins thrown in, just to rub salt in the wound.)
All this is lib nonsense. Jesus, you libs are fanatic crybaby asswipes about everything.
This wouldn’t have happened if people were honest. Stealing is wrong in any country. MS is still a co-conspiritor though.
“Hmm… Microsoft teaming up with police to curb software piracy..”
No, Microsoft teaming up with Russian police to attack Vladmir Putin’s political enemies using software piracy as an extremely flimsy justification.
@x
“All this is lib nonsense. Jesus, you libs are fanatic crybaby asswipes about everything.”
Is the irony that you’re being a crybaby asswipe about those “crybaby asswipe liberals” lost on you? Yes. Yes it is.
I hope you enjoy fanning the flames of the vapid partisanship bickering that enables the US government to become increasingly totalitarian since you dumbfucks are too busy sniping at eachother to notice, by the way.
But enough of that. Now let’s all give up some more liberty so we can help protect freedom from those damn Al Qaeda terriers.
@Jim
“Apple does far worse things but you’ll never hear about it on this site.”
Please change your handle…
This is a pretty common practice in Russia and not limited to just protest groups. I did a project for an international firm with a Moscow office to move all the local servers to Paris. Now the Russian users only have Citrix, so their “PCs” are just thin-client dumb terminals. It’s the only way to ensure that this type of seizure does not compromise the company’s data.
If any of you work for companies that do business there you may want to mention this to your CIO.
Nice to see a great range of opinion.
Where does this idea come from that the Obama administration is eroding civil liberties? Clearly it was the Bush administration (in particular Cheney) which sought to increase the powers of the executive branch, while simultaneously weakening civil protections in the name of fighting “terror.”
But no matter how far America drifts from its own admirable principles, it’s a drop in ocean compared to the civil rights abuses in Russia.
As others have pointed out, this case obviously has nothing to do with software piracy and everything to do with suppressing dissent.
Yes, there’s a strong level of partisanship in the U.S., but that’s hardly new. The point is despite the damage of the past ten years we have freedoms and civil protections that Russians can only dream of.
Oh, and Microsoft sucks.
The Nazis and commies were both liberal socialists. NOT right wing. Nice try dirt bags.
You cannot compare a representative republic based on democratic principles with Russia today or the communist era – left and right do not line up – apples and oranges.
Big Al,
Don’t confuse authoritarian dictatorships with communism. All the “communist” governments of the 20th century were perverted forms that were more military dictatorships than true communist goverments. The world has never seen true communism at work. Really. Marx and Engels were for the working masses, not the big shots and their secret police.
Big Al you would make a good Obama Czar!
And exactly what makes anyone feel this Administration is any different than the Russians?
Obama Czars don’t need no f&%king Microsoft……………………
Big Brother: Obama Demands Access to Internet Records, in Secret, and Without Court Review
The Obama administration is seeking authority from Congress that would compel internet service providers (ISPs) to turn over records of an individual’s internet activity for use in secretive FBI probes.
In another instance where Americans are urged to trust their political minders, The Washington Post reported last month that “the administration wants to add just four words–‘electronic communication transactional records’–to a list of items that the law says the FBI may demand without a judge’s approval.”
“In other words . . . THEY’RE BOTH LEFT WING. Huge government, no personal freedom. There’s no such thing as a “right wing” totalitarian state.”
That has got to be a new low in political sophistry.
Son, get your information from a wider range of sources than wikis & radio.
Geeze.
Silly un-educated remarks about political systems like this show up on a site that is supposedly about Apple products… Not a surprise.
@Only Lefties can be dictators… HA!
This is a perfect example of why MDN is a laughingstock elsewhere.
@ChrissyOne
Do you mean the times that MDN has denounced Greenpeace for annoying Apple about it’s products concerning the environment?
I will tell you I recently discovered I work with a member of Greenpeace. I had commented “Apple has always been one of the most environmentally friendly companies, why is Greenpeace (and others) always on their case not Dell’s, or other far worse offenders?”
He spoke up and said: “I am a member of Greenpeace. We target Apple because it’s hight profile company not because they are one of the big polluters.” I told him that was not fair to call Apple out publicly when their true target was other companies. His smug reply: “It’s politics. We have to. The only way we can get publicity is to target Apple.”
I then repeated that I felt their strategy was completely unfair placement of public blame, subjecting Apple to all the negative headline publicity. He repeated “It’s politics.”
As an environmentalist, this makes me not want to support Greenpeace anymore.
And exactly what makes you think the Obama Administration is any different from the Bush Administration?
Because to a very large extent, Barry is simply picking up where ol’ Dubya left off.
So is the whole Big Brother thing okay with you when the Republicans do it, but not okay when the Democrats do it?
I’m guessing the answer to that is a big fat “YES”. I understand, though. The political party you belong to can do no wrong, while the political party you don’t belong to is automatically evil incarnate. Even when both parties are actually doing the same things, you’re only allowed to rake the other party over the coals for it. Not your own, ever.
I hope the Republicans win the next election, that way you can go back to blissfully ignoring it every time the Administration compromises civil liberties just a wee bit more, instead of being politically duty-bound to rage against it.
@ldrhawke
You have jumped to a false conclusion. I am against all big big government….Republican or Democrat. They aren’t too much different right now. Hopefully this country will start to wake up before their is no United States of American. We are in a Democratic Count Down:
How Long Do We Have?
About the time our original thirteen states adopted their new constitution in 1787, Alexander Tyler,a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of theAthenian Republic some 2,000 years earlier:
‘A democracy is always temporary in nature;it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government.’
‘A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury.’
From that moment on, the majority always vote for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship.’
The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years’
During those 200 years, those nations always progressed through the following sequence:
1. from bondage to spiritual faith;
2. from spiritual faith to great courage;
3. from courage to liberty;
4. from liberty to abundance;
5. from abundance to complacency;
6. from complacency to apathy;
7. from apathy to dependence;
8. from dependence back into bondage’
Professor Joseph Olson of Hemline University School of Law, St. Paul , Minnesota points out some interesting facts concerning the 2008 Presidential election:
Number of States won by:
Democrats: 19
Republicans: 29
Square miles of land won by:
Democrats: 580,000
Republicans: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by:
Democrats: 127 million
Republicans: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Democrats: 13.2
Republicans: 2.1
Professor Olson adds:
‘In aggregate, the map of the territory the Republican won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of this great country. Democrat
territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare.’ Olson believes the United States is somewhere between the ‘complacency and apathy’ phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation’s population already having reached the ‘governmental dependency phase.
If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegals so that progressive liberals can continue their give away programs for votes, then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.
If you are in favor of this, then by all means, delete this message. If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.
God help us to wake up. Our children don’t deserve what we are stealing from them and doing to them. God Save our Republic.
There’s no such thing as a “right wing” totalitarian state.
So – by your logic – when the CIA backed the Pinochet-led coup against Allende in the Seventies, they were replacing a democratically elected left-wing government with a left-wing military dictatorship.
Was Paraguay under Stroessner a left-wing totalitarian state? If it was, I’d be surprised, Stroessner was avowedly anti-communist and was an ally of American administrations from 1954 to 1976: the man was so rabidly anti-communist, that not one single communist country had an embassy in Asuncion with the exception of non-aligned Yugoslavia.
Was he a totalitarian tyrant? I have my view, How about you go and do some research and learn for yourself?
Rand was right. And Atlas is shrugging…
Russian are such pessimists. All they try to do is whining all the time. They have such a huge country double the size of Europe and yet all they do is care about money.
Russia deserves a better class of developers and Khamkar is going to give it to them.
Aap mahan ho.