Bill Gates praises Russia
p2pnet.net News:- There will be celebration in the streets of Russia.
On a visit to Moscow, Microsoft prime minister Bill Gates says the country has made progress tackling software piracy, “a problem that has threatened the country’s bid to join the World Trade Organization,” states the Associated Press.
Gates did not, though, allude to AllofMP3.com, the Russian music site which has become a major feature in Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organization, and whose annihilation is now a major preoccupation for the United States in its efforts to help the entertainment and software cartels towards greater profitability.
“Knockoffs of the latest computer programs can be had from stalls and markets around Moscow for just a few dollars, and pirated films, music and software in Russia cost U.S. companies nearly $1.8 billion in 2005, according to the International Intellectual Property Association,” says AP, but, “Despite Microsoft being one of the main victims of the pirates, Gates praised Russia’s efforts to rein them in.”
It’s hard to forget a remark Gates made in 1998 about China, another country with a ‘piracy’ problem.
“Although about three million computers get sold every year in China, people don’t pay for the software,” he said, going on, “Someday they will, though. And as long as they’re going to steal it, we want them to steal ours.
“They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.”
Gates also used a meeting earlier in the day with deputy prime minister Dmitry Medvedev, “to stress the importance of the Internet as an educational tool and pledge support for the government’s efforts to bring the countries’ schools online,” says AP.
“Russia is a highly educated country, but the level of literacy includes computer literacy,” he was quoted as saying by the RIA-Novosti news agency. “We are ready to help cooperate with the government in the field of education so that all the potential of modern technology can be realized.”
Penetrating schools is another over-riding corporate priority so companies can reach young minds while they’re still young and highly impressionable.
Accordingly, in the US, Microsoft has created a ‘School of the Future,’ a “gleaming white modern facility looking out of place amid rows of ramshackle homes in a working-class West Philadelphia neighborhood”.
Also See:
Associated Press – Gates says Russia is progressing on software piracy, November 7, 2006
major preoccupation – US muscles AllofMP3.com, June 5, 2006
sort of addicted – China and ‘naked PCs’, April 12, 2006
ramshackle homes – Philadelphia’s Microsoft High, September 8, 2006
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