Examination results of Denisova's PCs cause lawyers' doubts

Prior to start litigation on the case of Anastasia Denisova, head of the public organization "ETnIKA", accused of using counterfeit software in her home and office computers, the equipment, which was confiscated at search, was subjected to examination. The Prosecutor's Office of Krasnodar entrusted the Inter-Regional Public Organization (IRPO) "Union of Criminalists" to make the examination.

Director of the IRPO Oleg Pleten told about the methodology of carrying out the examination: "We use the methodology of the Expert-Criminalistic Centre (ECC) of the MIA of Russia. Examination for Microsoft products is simple. When you install them, you need to input a key, or access code. It is unique, and there's second one. If a product is counterfeit, its code had already been entered. And often it can be found in the Internet. And our experts found them."

Mr Pleten said that his organization is permanently engaged in similar examinations and confirmed that counterfeit software can be found in any computer. The reason is that licensed products are expensive, and not everyone can afford them. However, according to his story, often PC sellers offer computers with counterfeit software installed.

Sergey Sabanov, a lawyer of the public organization "Youth Human Rights Movement" and expert in IT, made the following comment: "I've never heard that experts look into the Internet to find whether software is licensed or not. Organizations of this sort should have a special database containing the codes contain, and, when making examinations, experts usually verify the codes found in computers with these databases."

"At times, having clicked a link in the Internet wanting to listen to a song or watch a video, you activate some software disseminated without a license. Should we now try and imprison all of us?" asks the lawyer.

"I believe that the very Prosecutor's Office has computers with counterfeit. They are in any company, organization and state institution - yes, everywhere. It is obvious that in case with Denisova the law is applied selectively, with a definite purpose in mind - to stop her activity related to ecological monitoring in the Krasnodar Territory," said the source.