[pp.int.general] About PP Russia

[Patrick Maechler v/o Valio]

Hi Fedor,

Thank you for expressing your views here.
There are quite serious allegations included.
Currently we're quite feed up with the April conference organisation  
(and right now some server difficulties which will be solved by  
tonight hopefully); but be assured that I will try my best to have a  
look at it.
Further views by Russian speakers (non-RU residents) would be appreciated.

- pat




Zitat von Fedor Khod'kov <fedor76 at istra.ru>:

> Hello!
>
> PPI resources say us what Pirate Party exists in Russia, linking to
> their website (pirateparty.ru).  Unfortunately, people who run this
> website and call themselves PP of Russia seem to have views which are
> too different from those usually associated with PP and don't seem to
> possess courage and competence needed to run a social movement.
>
> They failed to recognize the repressive nature of current copyright
> system.  They claim that the only thing that's wrong with it is the fact
> that authors get too little cut of the profit.  Public rights doesn't
> concern them; PPR is too afraid of being labeled as "freeloaders" if
> they don't give the authors 100% guarantee that PPR program would make
> them richer.
>
> Such position is very strange in modern Russia, where government
> agencies are starting to recognize copyright laws as an excuse for them
> to harass human rights activists, environmentalists and members of other
> non-government organizations.  In January 2010, police of Krasnodar krai
> attacked Anastasia Denisova, head of regional NGO "ETHnICS", seizing her
> laptop and accusing her of copyright infringement
> (http://solidarity.hrworld.ru/en/denisova).  This case was reported to
> PPR at their webforum.  Stanislav Shakirov, one of active PPR members,
> commented it with only helpless "Nda...".  Mr. Shakirov was later
> elected as the first PPR Chairman.
>
> In 28th January, police of Irkutsk raided the office of NGO "Baikal
> Ecological Wave"
> (http://www.impunitywatch.net/impunity_watch_europe/2010/01/russian-police-raid-offices-of-environmental-ngo.html).
> Policemen claim that environmentalists used non-licensed software.  They
> refused to look at licence papers and destroyed Windows holographic
> stickers.
>
> When I reported this case to PPR, Mr. Shakirov (already official PPR
> leader) said the law which permits police to attack people and make them
> prove their innocence wasn't wrong; it is just some government agents
> abused their power.  Such ideas isn't infamiliar to Russian people: many
> neo-stalinists claim that there was nothing wrong with Stalin and with
> notorious 58 article of Russian Criminal Code (this article was commonly
> used to prosecute people during Stalin repressions); the local doers who
> have run to the very extremes are to blame.
>
> In 31th January, PPR website published their "official reaction" to the
> attack against Baikal defenders (http://pirateparty.ru/home/?p=294,
> Russian).  PPR not only failed to expose anti-human nature of copyright
> law, they were too shy even to support Irkutsk activists, saying
>
>      <...> Pirate Party of Russia calls all non-government organizations
>      to be more serious with software installed on their computers.
>
> and
>
>      <...> We all want to live in legal state, which means we must obey
>      even the unwise laws and use only legal means to change them.
>
> Effectively, PPR put the blame for the abuse on the victims of abuse.
>
> Members of PP Russia often say what their position is supported by PPI.
> It is not unusual for them to respond to critics saying something like
> "our position is in agreement with PPI's, so go to them and f**k their
> brains if you disagree; we aren't going to argue with you."  PPR members
> say that one of major goals for any Pirate Party is to make "free
> software cultists" to shut up and prevent software industry from being
> destroyed by them; and that they are going to do so in Russia.  As said
> Mr Shakirov:
>
>    I don't give a f**k to those rights (the citizen's rights which free
>    software movement aims to protect, and the presumption of innocence
>    which is violated then *you* need to prove that your copy of software
>    is legal and many others -- F.Kh.) and don't want to use them, so let
>    me use that I want.  Don't destroy companies which make the product
>    for me without providing the working replacement!
>
> PPR Chairman obviously puts his loyalty to proprietary software vendors
> above citizen's rights what current copyright system violates and what
> Pirate Party should defend.
>
> I think Pirate Party International shouldn't endorse such a position;
> and, because PPR claims such an endorsement exist, I think PPI should
> talk to PPR members about objectives and principles of pirate movement;
> and probably think more carefully whether PPR should be treated as a
> part of pirate movement or not.
> --
> Fedor.
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