First Russian BitTorrent User Sentenced, Activists Call For Support
Written by enigmax on December 14, 2007With rampant piracy across much of Russia, one could be forgiven for thinking they don’t care about copyright there. That assertion is now up for debate as the first BitTorrent user in Russia is sentenced for illegally distributing software, with anti-copyright activists calling for people to jump on a torrent in protest.
According to a report from rusya.ru, a man has made history by becoming the first person in Russia to be convicted for using BitTorrent to infringe copyright. Sergei Avramov appeared in court in the city of Rostov-on-Don, accused of the illegal distribution of pirated software. Despite his actions being strictly not-for-profit, he was found guilty and received a 12 month suspended sentence.
Avramov was accused of using uTorrent to illegally distribute a piece of expensive business software called 1C which is apparently an application allowing the automation of day-to-day business operations. It’s entirely possible that Avramov upset the wrong businessman in targeting this unusual software.
Now, some Russian self-described ‘anti-copyright activists’ are seeking others to join them, to demonstrate against Avramov’s sentence. A .torrent file for the actual 1C software has appeared on The Pirate Bay, with this included in the description:
“We, the group of anticopyright activists from Russia, ask you for help.
The point is that 04.12.07 there was the first time in Russia when a man was sentenced for filesharing. Sergey Avramov created a torrent for a software of the russian company “1C”.
We think its just the first step, after that will follow new repressions towards filesharing supporters. In our view, the only appropriate way to put pressure on the company is to create a new torrent on an independent server outside Russia and the forthcoming promotion of the link.
This step will show the uselessness of repressive actions towards users of filesharing networks.
We ask you to create a torrent seed for the software ‘1c_enterprise’.”
An .nfo relating to the 1C software carries a message which may well be seen more often in the future as BitTorrent seeders are being encouraged to include it in their own releases. Apart from the regular information it says:
Dear Filesharer,
We hope you enjoy your download.
Did you know that filesharing could soon be a thing of the past?
All across the world, media corporations are lobbying and pressuring national governments to change legislation to allow them to persecute filesharers more efficiently.
We disagree with their idea that piracy is theft. We feel theft involves depriving the owner of something. When a copy is made, the original remains.
The changes of legislation suggested would involve drastic changes of laws protecting personal privacy. We feel that the legislation changes suggested in the EU and the USA are out of proportion.
We believe in changing copyright laws.
If any of this interests you, please visit:
—links—
There are several political parties fighting for your rights. If you would like to vote for one of them in your next national election, please visit:
http://www2.piratpartiet.se/international/
Upcoming election for the Swedish parliament on 17th Sep 2006!
http://www.pp-international.net/forum/
International network of Pirate Parties.If you’re not interested, please accept our apology for using your bandwidth to spread the word.
Thank you for your attention!
If you believe in our cause, please include this file in your next seed! There are enough of us to make a difference!
It’s not clear how many .nfo’s it will take to help turn around anti-torrent big business, but spreading the word to the masses via this powerful medium will certainly help get the word out to millions of file-sharers worldwide.
Previously: What Happened to Demonoid, Will it Ever Return?
Next: Create Your Own BitTorrent Blog With Diferior
35 Responses
Wow.
First.
Actually, 1C’s business software has overwhelming market share. 1C also publishes a lot of PC games (Russian and foreign). Well it’s most known software developer and publisher (here in Russia).
I’ll be paying TPB a little visit it seems. I think I’ll keep it seeding, too. :)
I’m a regular user of torrents.ru and they have a problem with faggots from 1c. Soon both sides will be meeting to discuss things, although I have no clue why would they ever do this.
Yeah, piracy is rampant in russia, but it seems they are doing the same thing that they do in the west, randomly picking on people, because for fucks sake, they even sell fake dvds next to my fucking metro station!
If u fucking walk in the center of moscow, like tverskaya street u’ll fucking see these pirate bitches selling their crap, and it’s really bad quality too!
The NFO is misquoted.
Please quote the RIGHT NFO.
If I lived in Russia I’d attend the protest. I hope there are enough attendees on the protest so they make their point.
My mistake, I didn’t exactly mean that the pirates themselves sell the stuff, it’s all very organised here by the way. Piracy is a very profitable business here, because I have a friend who is a cop who was involved in a police raid on one of these pirate “factories” and he said that when they arrived, regular cops, these FSB
(ex-KGB) people came over and started telling the police to fuck off, meaning that the factory had some pretty good protectors in the government. Only after several phone calls and with a detachment of OMON (russian swat) were they able to get in there and do their work.
My friend also managed to get some dvds and games from there and he showed them to me. The cardboard boxes of for the movies were very well done, very hard to tell if they are fake or not, unless you start watching it :) The games sucked cauz none of them played haha :)
And you also had these gay ass rips like 10 games on 1 dvd, very popular in russia :)
Here you can read the REAL NFO
http://www.bintube.com/nfo.aspx?pid=698c71293d2263850a78559ff0cd90ee
Well, this hearing is only a part of anti-piracy campaign, started by 1C (as it was mentioned, they are the biggest software and publishing company in xUSSR). Their next target is torrents.ru
Also, another publish “Noviy Disk” is also claimed to the torrents.ru.
But from unofficial entities I heard, that Noviy Disk has already started negotiations with torrents.ru. And preliminary agreement is, that the product won’t be released on the site earlier than 3 month after the official date of release. I think if this info will be approved , that would be pretty interesting precedent.
Downloaded from TPB, seeding now.
The world has become an unsafe place for filesharers.
I’m getting it too
Hm strange, the Russian Government usually never cares about copyright, it only does when the U.S bugs them. I am a Russian Citizen in the U.S :P
International cooperation - it’s a good idea.
I’m in.
[quote comment="239183"]And preliminary agreement is, that the product won’t be released on the site earlier than 3 month after the official date of release. I think if this info will be approved , that would be pretty interesting precedent.[/quote]
Hey, I’m all for that! I’m always a few months late anyway :) Plus that give time to release patches, etc…
/Come on peeps, only 19 seeders
Now it starts. 1) Russia is going to be a member of WTO with strict copyright rules 2) Its own corporations became stronger and are able now not only to import and translate foreign programs, but to create and defend it in own market.
seeding ;]]
Which one on TPB are you guys seeding?
Link?
Torrent is HERE>
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3932961/%5BRequest%5D_1C_Enterprise_.iso
download and seed!
Do not cry for Russia for that.
1. Russia is one of the most corrupt countries on the planet.
2. They do not care about copyright violations, they care about infringement on organized crime’s copyright infringement market.
3. They do not have freedom, and they never have had freedom.
4. Hundreds of thousands of political protesters have been ignored, beaten, or locked up in the past six months for demanding freedom of election, speech, movement, property ownership, etc.
Nobody in power there cares about a few thousand wannabe pirates.
Americans, you cry over your pseudo-fascists, how they might one day become real fascists.
Come to Russia; the fascists never left.
And I am talking about far more than just file sharing.
Ehm, Artemus. How’s the heck that relate to filesharing?
[quote comment="239282"]Torrent is HERE>
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3932961/%5BRequest%5D_1C_Enterprise_.iso
download and seed![/quote]
Sorry, I am idiot, way off topic.
**I seeding now**
[quote]3. They do not have freedom, and they never have had freedom.[/quote]
No country has freedom as all countries have government.
i was coming in USA and my husband who pay for me he was a crazy filesharing man. all day he sit at his computer with his big fat belly and his greedy little American eyes. he say to me “hey Nadja come look what we can get from free on The Pirate Bay” but i say to him “i am from Russia the greatest country in the world and i know what will happen to you!” in the morning i laugh and laugh and laugh and my friend Kevinski he come to my house and we drink much vodjski and have sex in my husband’s bed because i telephone the MPAA and they come and they take my fat ugly American man away! America is great, long livski the USA!
Funny, are you sure you’re not Polish??? ski=Polish
government is an association of evil men that does harm to others using politic as a tool.
we need not fear them
they use scare tactics
they never tell the truth
the truth is suppressed so they can keep harming others and those who don’t go along behind our backs.
the rich owns us, we are slaves or serf.
i am citizen of Russia the greatest country the world! you have problemski kevinski he visit make stalingrad sausage!
Property is theft, russian billionaires scumbags are the proof of it, all billionaires deserve to DIE, why are the russian not throwing away this new hitler called poutine ? get rid of this dictator, the others will follow
Why don’t they spend some money on a good translator ?
“inherited simplicity and ease of use of the previous this product versions”
One of the many mistakes on their page.
It does not matter. Russia is under the popular Vadimir Putin who is eroding free speech. The cause of file-sharing will not be there if there is no free speech.
We are not a property
Ya just admitted to being a slave
Not very intelligent are ya?
never stop sharing..
sharing will never stop.
sharing will never die..
sharing is forever…
its the gift of life.
p2p=freedom…
riaa=mpaa
riaa,mpaa=pirates
riaa,mpaa=slave owner.
Kevinski say if i his girlfriend i make money because fat man he go
please help me is slave in America “THE GREATEST COUNTRY ON EARTH!” i porn and kill kill like bang blam you dead Hollywood and i anal and i everything! i good capitalist!
the MPAA he make me work Hilton Hotel clean sheets full poo from fat business man. i save go home Russki promise me
[quote comment="239183"]Their next target is torrents.ru
Also, another publish “Noviy Disk” is also claimed to the torrents.ru.
But from unofficial entities I heard, that Noviy Disk has already started negotiations with torrents.ru. And preliminary agreement is, that the product won’t be released on the site earlier than 3 month after the official date of release.[/quote]
3 weeks
Also community of the torrents.ru is carrying on negotiations with Buka and 1C. And they are already involved in controling process of the site (limited rights, users nothing to worry about). Soon we will be up there a series of interesting precedents.
People stop being a sheep
and and and be aggressive
We’re not pussies
We can fight them
There are more of us then there are of them… They use scare tactics
Resist it.
[quote comment="239321"][quote comment="239282"]Torrent is HERE>
http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3932961/%5BRequest%5D_1C_Enterprise_.iso
download and seed![/quote]
Sorry, I am idiot, way off topic.
**I seeding now**[/quote]
yes..right…
The relationship being, that societally important things like democracy and freedom are blatantly and violently oppressed in that country, there is no chance of such a societally un-important thing as file-sharing to make any (actual/legal/etc) progress.
Translation of this article to Russian with an added review of recent events in Canada is now available on kpnemo.ru!
http://kpnemo.ru/news/2007/12/18/pervyiy_russkiy_polzovatel_bittorrent_osuzhden_aktivistyi_prizyivayut_podderzhat_ego/
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