Gorby back in the news?
Not only does the last Soviet leader and current charitable foundation guru Mikhail Gorbachev make it into the news, he does it by begging Windows magnate Bill Gates in an open letter to show mercy for Aleksandr Ponosov, a Russian school principal who is accused of knowingly buying computers with pirated Windows software for his impoverished school:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/02/05/gorbachev.gates.reut/index.html
Should school officials and teachers in impoverished regions of the world be able to circumvent copyright in order to attempt to bridge the Digital Divide? Do you think appealing to Bill Gates himself is appropriate? Shouldn't this be pursued in a court of law instead of playing out in front of the court of public opinon?
Comments
On a related note, here's what Romanian President Traian Basescu said to Bill Gates:
"Piracy helped the young generation discover computers. It set off the development of the IT industry in Romania," Basescu said during a joint news conference with Gates.
More here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/01/AR2007020100715.html
Posted by: GB | February 8, 2007 09:58 AM
Seems like Posonov is off the hook!
http://www.microsoft-watch.com/content/corporate/russian_principal_case_dismissed.html
Posted by: GB | February 16, 2007 10:22 AM
"Shouldn't this be pursued in a court of law instead of playing out in front of the court of public opinion?" - perhaps the best thing to do is to present the issue in both.
Posted by: taishere | August 29, 2007 08:49 AM