Illegal Software Charges Dropped Against Village School Principal

PERM. Feb 15 (Interfax) – The Vereshchagino District Court in the Perm territory has dropped the illegal software charges against village school principal Alexander Ponosov.

The court said Ponosov will be set free.

The court also said that the damages were insignificant. Ponosov plans to challenge the ruling. “It looks like they let me go because Microsoft damages are meager and not because there are no formal elements of a crime,” he said.

Vereshchagino district prosecutor Alexander Troyanov also said he would challenge the sentence. The court must either acquit Ponosov or find him guilty. Instead, the case was dropped for formal reasons, he said. “The judge has breached the law,” the prosecutor said.

Meanwhile, Ponosov celebrated his release with champagne near the court building.

At the Wednesday hearing the prosecution offered Ponosov a plea bargain under which he would pay a 3,000-ruble fine.

Ponosov, who was accused of illegally using Microsoft products from fall 2005 through August 2006, declined the offer and pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors charged that unlicensed software was installed in village school computers and assessed the damages at over 250,000 rubles.

The case was defined as a breach of copyright.

(c) 2007 Daily News Bulletin; Moscow – English. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.