RUSSIA:In what has been dubbed a modern David versus Goliath battle, a middle-aged Russian teacher from the Urals faces a court case for illegally installing Microsoft software on 12 school computers, writes Conor Sweeneyin Moscow.
The case has attracted huge interest in Russia, casting Alexander Ponosov as the little man who was only trying to educate his pupils, fighting off a massive, unfair, legal attack.
The teacher's plight has attracted biblical comparisons and top-level political intervention, with Russia's president Vladimir Putin dismissing the case as "nonsense". Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has been urged to intercede and have the case halted by the Soviet Union's last president, Mikhail Gorbachev.
An initial court hearing last week clearly accepted Mr Putin's view, with the case dropped on the grounds that the alleged losses to Microsoft were so minuscule the case was not worth hearing. But the local prosecutor yesterday appealed it to a higher court, which in turn directed that the case should now be heard in full by the lower court.
Mr Ponosov denies any wrongdoing and insists he did not know that the 12 computers, installed by a local sub-contractor, had fake versions of Microsoft Office and Windows.
"My position has not changed. I am innocent. Of course it is very unpleasant," he said yesterday, from his home near Perm in the Ural mountains. If convicted, Mr Ponosov could face a jail term of up to five years and a fine of €8,000.
"The court overturned the ruling of the Vereschagin court and returned the case for a retrial. This is what the prosecutor was seeking. I was pushing for an acquittal straight away," he said.
Although Microsoft has been campaigning for an end to the rampant use of pirated software in Russia, it denied any specific link to the case. "Our interest is not in prosecuting schools or teachers," it stated last month.
The Russian media has leaped to Mr Ponosov's side, portraying him in heroic terms, toiling on very low pay and now being persecuted for trying to modernise educational aids.
Russia faces increasing pressure to crack down on the widespread availability of bootleg software, music and DVDs. It hopes to join the World Trade Organisation this year but has been criticised for failing to protect intellectual property, triggering suspicions that Mr Ponosov is an unfortunate scapegoat caught in a bigger game.