The case of Zhukov: protection version, open letter
I appeal to users of Habr. I appeal to all sensible people who appreciate intellectual work and for whom copyright is not an empty phrase.
We really need your support, the first hearing has already passed, a conviction has been pronounced. But we filed a cassation and we feel that we cannot do without public support.
November 26, 2010 for the first time in the history of a programmer, the developer of an accounting computer program Vyacheslav Zhukov was convicted for protecting his copyright. The Magadan city court found its program malicious due to the presence of licensing restrictions in the program. It is the restrictions of the program's functions in case of unlicensed use that the court considered malicious.
Such restrictions, it should be noted, are found in practically any commercial software products and are generally accepted practice in the fight against illegal, pirated use of software. Their court found outlaw. So, for the first time, not a computer pirate was convicted, but a developer for protecting his copyright, for protection against piracy.
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It should be noted that this is the first application in our country of 273 articles relating to technical means of copyright protection (DRM). Yes, we are making history, but we don’t want to do this in such a way.
Immediately after the sentence was pronounced, a one-sided message from the Magadan regional prosecutor's office spread in the Internet, stating that by sudden restrictions in the program Zhukov forced clients to conclude new contracts. But this is a lie. There were no sudden limitations of the functions in the program.
All buyers of the program knew that the program is provided for a year. And the period for which the program is provided is always indicated in the contract. The old contracts for the supply of the program did not clarify what exactly the term of the contract means, but there was no ambiguous interpretation of the term of the contract. The provision of a program for a year is the established custom of business turnover. In the context of frequently changing legislation, this procedure for providing a program is convenient and understandable to its users.
Therefore, the version of the prosecutor's office that for many years in a row from year to year Zhukov has been forcing clients to enter into contracts, amid at least positive feedback from the users of the program themselves.
But! The termination of the program after the expiration of the contract Magadan department "K" called a harmful effect.
Of the nearly three hundred users of the program, only two were found (the minimum required number) who did not understand or did not want to understand the conditions for the provision of programs. They tried to use the program after the expiration of the contract and were faced with functional limitations in the program. The testimony of these two illegal users formed the basis of the charges. The most interesting thing is that there are no applicants or victims.
Not at the first attempt, the investigators found an expert who, for 140,000 rubles, confirmed that the program was malicious. The expert explained that by stopping work, the program blocks accounting information. Despite the fact that qualified specialists confirm that the program is just a convenient tool for working with information, stopping to work, the program does not have any impact on the database, information files can be opened in another program, they can be copied, they can be done anything. The database format is open (dbf), the database is not encrypted.
The message from the prosecutor's office also heard big words about the distortion of accounting information and about the imitation of failures. But these prosecutors are only trying to cover up their wrong. No distortion of information occurred. As a result of licensing restrictions, the information was not displayed on the screen in full, while the information in the database itself remained completely safe. Also, after the expiration of the license in the program, some menu items stopped working, while the main window of the program was painted in different colors. Such a variety of licensing restrictions with imitation of software errors is due to the fact that “SLV-Salary” was repeatedly revealed by hackers and thus he tried to complicate hacking.
Every programmer knows how difficult it is to develop reliable and robust protections. And how and to what extent to limit the functionality of the illegal use of the program, and how to counteract the hacking of the program, decides the author of the program.
It is important that the limitations of the functionality on the information itself, owned by the user, have no effect, so there is no malicious effect on the information in this case. All that is in the program of Zhukov is a generally accepted restriction of the functions of the program in order to protect copyrights.
Think about what kind of accession to the WTO can we talk about when in our country this is the case with copyright? When, instead of copyright protection, our law enforcement agencies accuse the developer of defenses against piracy using the program. And where is the course for high-tech production, when the state itself in the face of law enforcement agencies is struggling with the developers of computer programs?
Even before the sentence was pronounced, the prosecutor said a significant phrase that all programmers use similar, that is, malicious remedies. So dear programmers, the prosecutor's office will get to you, be prepared.
Probably in the case of Zhukov there is a corruption component. I ask responsible senior officials to understand this case. Find out who so aggressively promotes the absurd accusation, which has already caused a serious public outcry.
I also ask you to take the problem as a whole seriously. The development of the software development industry is impossible without an adequate attitude to this area on the part of law enforcement agencies. We have good legislation in the areas of protection of copyright and computer crimes, but law enforcement agencies are still very negligent and superficial about the laws, applying them out of place, distortingly interpreting them. This issue should be seriously addressed right now. Otherwise, programmers will not want to work in the country where, at any moment, computer crimes can be attributed to them by far-fetched reasons.
Previous discussion habrahabr.ru/blogs/copyright/109028
The case file is detailed on delozhukova.ru
Expert Opinions ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del_Zhukova
Update 1: I want to note that in addition to the funny MaxUp and SKYnv trolls, my publication also attracted the attention of normal people.
It is surprising that the community is ready to "sit down" for errors in its software. After all, you understand that in the absence of a formal case of the precedent law in the Russian Federation, judges still look back at law enforcement practice.
It does not surprise the erroneous interpretation of the Civil Code, about the "purchase of programs." In our country, the program can not be bought, they are not subject to property rights. You can rent it forever, but unless otherwise specified, the lease term is 5 years. In order to understand this, it is necessary to read the civil code, and 90% of commentators didn’t even think about it.
I remind The question in this discussion is not conducted within the framework of the guilty-not guilty, the question is more subtle. Are you sure that a person is worthy of prosecution?
We really need your support, the first hearing has already passed, a conviction has been pronounced. But we filed a cassation and we feel that we cannot do without public support.
November 26, 2010 for the first time in the history of a programmer, the developer of an accounting computer program Vyacheslav Zhukov was convicted for protecting his copyright. The Magadan city court found its program malicious due to the presence of licensing restrictions in the program. It is the restrictions of the program's functions in case of unlicensed use that the court considered malicious.
Such restrictions, it should be noted, are found in practically any commercial software products and are generally accepted practice in the fight against illegal, pirated use of software. Their court found outlaw. So, for the first time, not a computer pirate was convicted, but a developer for protecting his copyright, for protection against piracy.
')
It should be noted that this is the first application in our country of 273 articles relating to technical means of copyright protection (DRM). Yes, we are making history, but we don’t want to do this in such a way.
Immediately after the sentence was pronounced, a one-sided message from the Magadan regional prosecutor's office spread in the Internet, stating that by sudden restrictions in the program Zhukov forced clients to conclude new contracts. But this is a lie. There were no sudden limitations of the functions in the program.
All buyers of the program knew that the program is provided for a year. And the period for which the program is provided is always indicated in the contract. The old contracts for the supply of the program did not clarify what exactly the term of the contract means, but there was no ambiguous interpretation of the term of the contract. The provision of a program for a year is the established custom of business turnover. In the context of frequently changing legislation, this procedure for providing a program is convenient and understandable to its users.
Therefore, the version of the prosecutor's office that for many years in a row from year to year Zhukov has been forcing clients to enter into contracts, amid at least positive feedback from the users of the program themselves.
But! The termination of the program after the expiration of the contract Magadan department "K" called a harmful effect.
Of the nearly three hundred users of the program, only two were found (the minimum required number) who did not understand or did not want to understand the conditions for the provision of programs. They tried to use the program after the expiration of the contract and were faced with functional limitations in the program. The testimony of these two illegal users formed the basis of the charges. The most interesting thing is that there are no applicants or victims.
Not at the first attempt, the investigators found an expert who, for 140,000 rubles, confirmed that the program was malicious. The expert explained that by stopping work, the program blocks accounting information. Despite the fact that qualified specialists confirm that the program is just a convenient tool for working with information, stopping to work, the program does not have any impact on the database, information files can be opened in another program, they can be copied, they can be done anything. The database format is open (dbf), the database is not encrypted.
The message from the prosecutor's office also heard big words about the distortion of accounting information and about the imitation of failures. But these prosecutors are only trying to cover up their wrong. No distortion of information occurred. As a result of licensing restrictions, the information was not displayed on the screen in full, while the information in the database itself remained completely safe. Also, after the expiration of the license in the program, some menu items stopped working, while the main window of the program was painted in different colors. Such a variety of licensing restrictions with imitation of software errors is due to the fact that “SLV-Salary” was repeatedly revealed by hackers and thus he tried to complicate hacking.
Every programmer knows how difficult it is to develop reliable and robust protections. And how and to what extent to limit the functionality of the illegal use of the program, and how to counteract the hacking of the program, decides the author of the program.
It is important that the limitations of the functionality on the information itself, owned by the user, have no effect, so there is no malicious effect on the information in this case. All that is in the program of Zhukov is a generally accepted restriction of the functions of the program in order to protect copyrights.
Think about what kind of accession to the WTO can we talk about when in our country this is the case with copyright? When, instead of copyright protection, our law enforcement agencies accuse the developer of defenses against piracy using the program. And where is the course for high-tech production, when the state itself in the face of law enforcement agencies is struggling with the developers of computer programs?
Even before the sentence was pronounced, the prosecutor said a significant phrase that all programmers use similar, that is, malicious remedies. So dear programmers, the prosecutor's office will get to you, be prepared.
Probably in the case of Zhukov there is a corruption component. I ask responsible senior officials to understand this case. Find out who so aggressively promotes the absurd accusation, which has already caused a serious public outcry.
I also ask you to take the problem as a whole seriously. The development of the software development industry is impossible without an adequate attitude to this area on the part of law enforcement agencies. We have good legislation in the areas of protection of copyright and computer crimes, but law enforcement agencies are still very negligent and superficial about the laws, applying them out of place, distortingly interpreting them. This issue should be seriously addressed right now. Otherwise, programmers will not want to work in the country where, at any moment, computer crimes can be attributed to them by far-fetched reasons.
Previous discussion habrahabr.ru/blogs/copyright/109028
The case file is detailed on delozhukova.ru
Expert Opinions ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Del_Zhukova
Update 1: I want to note that in addition to the funny MaxUp and SKYnv trolls, my publication also attracted the attention of normal people.
It is surprising that the community is ready to "sit down" for errors in its software. After all, you understand that in the absence of a formal case of the precedent law in the Russian Federation, judges still look back at law enforcement practice.
It does not surprise the erroneous interpretation of the Civil Code, about the "purchase of programs." In our country, the program can not be bought, they are not subject to property rights. You can rent it forever, but unless otherwise specified, the lease term is 5 years. In order to understand this, it is necessary to read the civil code, and 90% of commentators didn’t even think about it.
I remind The question in this discussion is not conducted within the framework of the guilty-not guilty, the question is more subtle. Are you sure that a person is worthy of prosecution?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/110628/
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