Piracy case collapses in Russia
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A Russian court throws out a case against a headteacher accused of using pirated Microsoft software.
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Moscow court rules that Allofmp3.com, accused of selling pirated music downloads, did not violate Russian copyright laws and can resume business.
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A federal court rules that the operators of TorrentSpy destroyed evidence in a copyright case against them.
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NOVOSIBIRSK. May 30 (Interfax) - The criminal case against Novosibirsk scientist Oleg Korobeinichev, who faced charges of disclosing a state secret, has been closed due to the absence of any crime, Korobeinichev's lawyer Andrei Zhukov told Interfax.
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New legislation that threatens Internet pirates with jail terms of up to five years took effect in Russia, local media reported, as Moscow presses its drive to join the World Trade Organization.
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9 September 2004 -- Russian police in St. Petersburg said today they found explosives, detonators, and a gun in a cinema which was closed for renovation.
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Russia's justice ministry announced plans to break up the Yukos oil giant in a fatal blow to Russia's largest oil producer and former Western investor darling that once dared challenge President Vladimir Putin's rule.
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The European court rules against Russia over the disappearance of a Chechen man, in a landmark case.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft is sidestepping an appeal from a former leader of the Soviet Union to intervene in a piracy case involving a school principal. Mikhail Gorbachev, who is credited with aiding the end of the Cold War, wrote to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates on Monday asking for help in halting the trial of Aleksandr Ponosov, 40, who could face up to five years in prison. In the letter, posted on his Web site in Russian, Gorbachev wrote that his country finds the prosecution of Ponosov scandalous. Ponosov, 40, was charged in November with using more than $10,000 in pirated Microsoft software. The principal claims he bought the computers with the unlicensed software preinstalled. Police seized 12 computers from his school in the village of Vereschagino in western Russia in May 2006, but soon returned them so the school could conduct its computer science exams. Gorbachev wrote that while Russian law allows for the prosecution of those who unknowingly use pirated software, the case against Ponosov is unwarranted. The former leader also made an emotional appeal, writing that Ponosov dedicated his life to teaching for a modest salary, which doesn't compare to those of Microsoft employees. Gorbachev's high-level intervention comes as Microsoft continues anÂ aggressive legal campaign to stop piracyÂ of its software. Microsoft has launched dozens of civil lawsuits and aided law enforcement in criminal investigations throughout Europe and the U.S. A Microsoft executive said Tuesday that Russian authorities contacted the company to verify the software was illegal. Microsoft did not request that charges be filed, and the decision to charge Ponosov was made by prosecutors, said Kim Gagne, corporate affairs director for central and eastern Europe. Microsoft will not pursue a civil case against the principal. "We don't see this as a serious violation," said Olga Dergunova, who heads Microsoft's Russian operations. The protection of intellectual property has become a key sticking point between Russia and the U.S., which has said lax enforcement hurts Russia's chances of entering the World Trade Organization. Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week the focus should be on the producers and distributors of pirated software. "The law recognizes the concept of someone who purchased the product in good faith," Putin said at his annual press conference on Feb. 1. "It is easy to just grab someone and punish, but what we need to do is get to the bottom of each case, which is harder," he said. During a visit to Moscow in November, Gates said Microsoft will do what it can to provide Russian school children with advanced software while also praising government efforts to protect intellectual property, according to the RIA Novosti, a government-owned news agency. (Pavel Kupriyanov of Computerworld Russia contributed to this story). Â
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German police have broken up an Internet piracy operation that peddled millions of euros worth of bootleg films, computer games, music and software, police and prosecutors said on Friday.
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British and Dutch police shut down what they say is one the world's biggest online sources of pirated music Tuesday and arrested the Web site's 24-year-old suspected operator.
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Putin promises action It appears the Russian government has agreed to shut down popular music site AllofMP3.com in order to appease US objections to it joining the World Trade Organisation (WTO).â¦
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Russian prosecutors have halted an  investigation into the suspicious death of a defense reporter  who fell from his apartment building in March, his newspaper  reported on Wednesday.
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Russia halted operations of a U.S.-funded organization that trains Russian journalists and the head of the organization fled the country for fear she would be jailed, she and her lawyers said Friday.
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One of Moscow's two major stock exchanges delisted Yukos on Friday, the Interfax news agency reported, and the Prosecutor-General's office said a new criminal investigation had been opened against the oil company's jailed former CEO Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
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MOSCOW, Feb. 15 â A Russian judge convicted a provincial school headmaster on Thursday for using pirated Microsoft software in school computers, but declined to impose any penalty, saying that Microsoftâs loss was insignificant compared with its overall earnings.
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Claims business as usual The Pirate Bay said it will live on no matter what the outcome of a case brought by a Swedish prosecutor who charged four men involved with the running of the file-sharing site today.â¦