Chris Holmes
Date: Sunday September 12, 2010
So you work for this advocacy group against the clubbing of baby seals. You're sitting on your computer, writing up your latest memo criticizing your government for allowing people to club baby seals, when the police walk in, steal all your computers, and just saunter off.
It just so happens, that they "conveniently" were informed that you'd pirated a copy of Microsoft Windows, and they were simply performing a raid to try and put a stop to rampant privacy.
This is exactly what's going on in Russia (a country where piracy is FAR bigger than it is here in the states) and people are starting to notice. Microsoft had been working with Russia, helping them crack down on software pirates. But with the recent revelation that most of the targets of these pirate raids have been governmental dissidents having been brought to Microsoft's attention, things may be changing.
Yet another case of governments doing one thing in an attempt to "solve" a technological problem, which just happens to coincide with the governments own agenda of complete dominion over it's people. However, with Microsoft knowing what's going on, hopefully it may stop. It is a story that will require more tracking over time.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/world/europe/12raids.html?_r=1&ref=technology
No comments:
Post a Comment