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MOSCOW - Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has asked Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to intercede on behalf of a Russian teacher accused of using pirated software in his classroom.
In an open letter, Nobel Peace Prize winner Gorbachev said the teacher, Alexander Ponosov, from a remote village in the Urals, should be shown mercy because he did not know he was committing a crime.
"A teacher, who has dedicated his life to the education of children and who receives a modest salary that does not bear comparison with the salaries of even regular staff in your company, is threatened with detention in Siberian prison camps," read the letter, posted on the internet site of Gorbachev's charitable foundation www.gorby.ru. "We ask you to show mercy and withdraw your complaint."
Prosecutors accuse Ponosov, headmaster of an intermediate school, of violating Microsoft's intellectual property rules by using computers in his school that contained unlicensed copies of the firm's software.
Russia has been mounting a high-profile crackdown on piracy as part of its efforts to join the World Trade Organisation.
- REUTERS
