2 Piracy Cases Test Readiness for WTO

[CHIMO]

As Russia seeks to overcome the last hurdles to joining the World Trade Organization, authorities are prosecuting two intellectual property cases involving Microsoft products that could set important precedents in the country's fight against piracy.

The first focuses on the director of a disc-making plant near Moscow, while the other one deals with the head of a village school in the Perm region that has been caught using counterfeit software.

And while Viktor Zudenkov, the plant director, is unlikely to garner much sympathy, Alexander Ponosov, the school director in the village of Sepych, has already secured support from the Federal Press and Mass Media Agency.

By law, both men face the same penalty: up to five years in prison.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/24/002.html