As part of an ongoing series subtitled “Above the Law”, the New York Times reports that “Russia Uses Microsoft to Suppress Dissent”:
… Across Russia, the security services have carried out dozens of similar raids against outspoken advocacy groups or opposition newspapers in recent years. Security officials say the inquiries reflect their concern about software piracy, which is rampant in Russia. Yet they rarely if ever carry out raids against advocacy groups or news organizations that back the government.
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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.
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Interviews and a review of law enforcement documents show that in recent cases, Microsoft lawyers made statements describing the company as a victim and arguing that criminal charges should be pursued. The lawyers rebuffed pleas by accused journalists and advocacy groups, including Baikal Wave, to refrain from working with the authorities. Baikal Wave, in fact, said it had purchased and installed legal Microsoft software specifically to deny the authorities an excuse to raid them. The group later asked Microsoft for help in fending off the police. “Microsoft did not want to help us, which would have been the right thing to do,” said Marina Rikhvanova, a Baikal Environmental Wave co-chairwoman and one of Russia’s best-known environmentalists. “They said these issues had to be handled by the security services.”
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Microsoft executives in Moscow and at the company’s headquarters in Redmond, Wash., asserted that they did not initiate the inquiries and that they took part in them only because they were required to do so under Russian law.
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After The New York Times presented its reporting to senior Microsoft officials, the company responded that it planned to tighten its oversight of its legal affairs in Russia. Human rights organizations in Russia have been pressing Microsoft to do so for months. The Moscow Helsinki Group sent a letter to Microsoft this year saying that the company was complicit in “the persecution of civil society activists.” …
Ahasuerus
Those of us who remember Microsoft from the previous century are not particularly surprised. Those of us who know Microsoft from the current century are not surprised either.
Linda Featheringill
Ain’t capitalism grand!
rachel
Starve the Beast of Redmond: use Linux!
MB
There’s an increased realization among private sector companies with licensing interests (software, record labels, etc.) that they have something of value to trade to governments – a publicly acceptable reason to intrude on the privacy of individuals and organizations. Situations like the one above are laughably transparent, but as both sides become more adept at recognizing the confluence of interests and negotiating the transaction, it’s going to quietly expand to other countries.
In the US, the added explanation of stopping CP will be included in the mix.
schrodinger's cat
In
SovietPutin’s Rushya, the computer gets you.arguingwithsignposts
Mac/PC/Linux flame war commencing in 5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1 …
(on the topic at hand, that’s pretty shitty behavior for any company. good on the NYT for wider dissemination)
Stillwater
Yeah, but Russia is an undeveloped, tiny backwater country defined by an authoritarian executive branch. I mean, something like what’s described here could never happen in the US…
Comrade Mary
Open Office is absolutely, completely, 100% free forever for everyone and runs on Windows, Macs and Linux. Just sayin’ …
Ash Can
What I don’t get is why Microsoft would be in bed with the Russian authorities to begin with. I wouldn’t have thought the Russian police would have the dough to buy this kind of assistance from Microsoft. Or does Microsoft have a huge contract with the Russian government that just might go by the boards if Microsoft doesn’t help out? Maybe I haven’t had enough coffee yet and am missing something obvious, but really, what’s in it for Microsoft?
bago
Just for your information, this looks like a patriot act style overreach to grab the entire contents of a drive under the pretext of a Eula violation. This is what will happen if you don’t store everything encrypted under a proprietary key.
I wouldn’t blame Microsoft for ip management of their ip. I would blame overly broad search warrants that allow for data unlinked to os functionality to be be permitted in court, as it obviously is outside of the constraints of the warrant and the damages it intends to remediate.
If you can sue providers for providing data for following rfc standards, then you can sue electricity providers for enabling electronic communication that might result in a copyright infringement.
bago
@Ash Can: Why is google in bed with China? They have stockholders, and as a public company they have to choose the option that makes more money.
Amir_Khalid
@Ash Can: The public sector is a major customer for Microsoft in any country. Much of the time, it is the biggest single customer, bigger than any corporate customer. Can you imagine being head of Microsoft sales for Russia and having to tell Steve Ballmer that you pissed off your territory’s biggest customer?
Ash Can
@bago: Yeah, no shit. My question was about where that money was coming from. If you mean that Microsoft’s management might be afraid that its product might be outlawed in Russia if it didn’t cooperate in this manner, I can see that. But when I first read this post, the whole setup smelled like a kickback scheme to me, and I immediately stopped and wondered what was there to get kicked back. The potential for legal proscription at least makes sense.
ETA @Amir_Khalid: And that makes the most sense of all. Thank you for setting me straight.
soonergrunt
I have Windows 7 on all my computers. I love it. For me, it does everything I want and allows me to do everything I want with little effort or difficulty.
Having said that, if I’m running a human-rights organization in an oppressive country, I wouldn’t use a product of a company that must obey the oppressive regime’s laws and rulings to stay in business. I’d go open source for the very reason that this news story highlights. Guess what? You cell phones and land-lines are bugged, and your ISP is copying your email and your internet access to the security services as well. Your snail mail is being read, too. None of that is Microsoft’s fault, and none of it can be re-mediated by using Linux.
sparky
@soonergrunt: remember this–warrentless monitoring proposal, which presumably will be enacted?
you wrote this:
so the logical question here is why are you using MS in the USA?
soonergrunt
@sparky:
Because of the parts you didn’t blockquote.
and
Paris
5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1 …
but they can’t bust you for violating a license agreement if you’re using Linux. That’s the pretence that is initiating the harassment. (and Linux is far superior to all other OS’s available :)