from the good-work,-US dept
For quite some time now, US diplomats have been
pressuring Russia to crack down on copyright violations in the country. While Russian officials have mostly given lipservice to the requests, it appears they've now found a convenient way to kill two birds with one stone: shutting up government critics with charges of software piracy. We first mentioned that
strategy back in September, but now it appears to be working quite well. A newspaper critical of the government
has suspended publication thanks to a criminal investigation into whether or not the newspaper was using "pirated" software. Since we've already seen that piracy convictions in Russia can
mean getting sent off to Siberia, it seems like Russian officials now have discovered how to send many critics off to Siberia while appeasing US demands to crack down on piracy.
Filed Under: copyright, dissent, piracy, russia, software
