Microsoft Speaks Out on Russian Piracy Prosecution

Today, CNews published the Q&A with Olga Dergunova, chairwoman of Microsoft Russia and CIS. CNews reporter Alexander Levashov interviewed Dergunova, pressing her on the most important points of the case.

The piracy prosecution grew to national prominence on Monday, when former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev made a personal appeal to Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates, in an online letter (Google translation). So far, Gates and Microsoft have chosen not to intervene on behalf of the school principal, Alexander Ponosov.

Gorbachev's appeal directly to Gates made sense, in part because Microsoft owns the software and only licenses it to customers.

In the CNews interview Dergunova affirmed that "Microsoft is the plaintiff in this case; its intellectual property rights have been violated."

Dergunova indicated that many questions about the case remain unanswered. "The whole situation with the illegal software at the school is not quite clear to us," she said. "The preliminary investigation didn't give any results as to who installed the illegal software."

In his letter, Gorbachev said Ponosov purchased the computers unaware they contained pirated software. The logical place to look would be the source of the PCs.

The Microsoft executive defended the company's reseller. "In the Ponosov case computers were delivered by an authorized supplier, who works with Microsoft as well," she said. "He provided documents stating that the computers didn't have any programmes installed and containing a paragraph warning of copyright infringement in case of illegal software installed."

Her response is puzzling, because Microsoft works with its partners in all geographies to ensure that at least an operating system is installed on new PCs. The reason: to curb piracy. So why would a Microsoft reseller ship a PC without Windows?

Dergunova revealed that the average selling price of PCs in Russia is $800 to $850 and that Windows XP Home would cost $70 to $80.

"Half of the computers supplied to Russia are sold together with the legal Windows OS," she said. "So, the situation has radically improved in the recent three years."

Earlier this week, Russian Education Minister Nikolay Karpushin indicated that the Posonov prosecution would drive some schools to Linux. Levashov asked Dergunova about the statement, but she dodged the question by touting Microsoft software quality.