Microsoft and Russia

Microsoft and Russia The International Herald Tribune September 17, 2010 Friday

Microsoft made the right decision to stop helping Russian authorities use claims of software piracy to harass and silence dissenters. On Monday, it announced that it is barring its lawyers from taking part in such cases and will provide a blanket software license to advocacy groups and news media outlets in Russia, undercutting the Kremlin's tactic.

Still, Microsoft's willingness to lend itself to politically motivated investigations - it changed course only after an article by Clifford Levy in The New York Times on Sunday - suggests a shocking failure of corporate responsibility. The Times said lawyers for Microsoft bolstered state police in politically tinged cases across Russia. After police seized a dozen computers from a Siberian environmental group, the group said all its software was legally licensed and asked Microsoft to confirm this. Microsoft would not. The police used information from the computers to track down and interrogate some of the group's supporters. Before changing policy on Monday, Microsoft executives said the company was required under Russian law to take part in such inquiries.

Unfortunately, Microsoft is not the only American company that has failed to stand up for the rights of its customers in undemocratic countries. In China, all search engines have helped the state control access to the Internet. In 2004, Yahoo helped Beijing's state police uncover the Internet identities of two Chinese journalists, who were then sentenced to 10 years in prison for disseminating pro-democracy writings online. The one company that has stood up to China is Google. In March, after five years of complicity with Beijing's censors, it began redirecting searches to its unfiltered engine in Hong Kong.

By contrast, Microsoft's founder and chairman, Bill Gates, defended the company's continued collaboration with China's censors. ''You've got to decide: Do you want to obey the laws of the countries you're in, or not?'' he said during Beijing's fight with Google. ''If not, you may not end up doing business there.''

In 2008, Microsoft and Yahoo joined fellow businesses, human rights organizations and other groups in the Global Network Initiative and pledged to protect privacy and freedom of expression online. But declarations are cheap. They must put principle before profit and refuse to aid and abet repression. Microsoft can show that it now truly gets it by extending its offer of a blanket license to political and news media groups in China and other repressive countries around the world.

Pyongyang wants talks on border clashes; North proposes finding ways to avoid naval disputes with the South

The International Herald Tribune September 17, 2010 Friday CHOE SANG-HUN

North Korea has proposed military talks with South Korea to discuss border disputes, the Defense Ministry said Thursday, in another sign that the North is reaching out to its southern rival after months of high tension.

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North Korea on Wednesday proposed working-level military talks to discuss preventing naval clashes along the disputed western sea border, ministry officials said. Another topic the North said it wanted to discuss was leaflets sent across the border by South Korean activists that urge North Koreans to rise up against their leader, Kim Jong-il.

Relations between the two Koreas have chilled since President Lee Myung-bak took office in Seoul in early 2008. They deteriorated further after a South Korean warship, the Cheonan, sank in March near the disputed border, in what Seoul and Washington say was a North Korean torpedo attack. Forty-six sailors were killed. The North denied the accusation, demonstrating its displeasure by firing a barrage of artillery in the border waters.

In recent weeks, however, Pyongyang has made some conciliatory gestures. It freed the crew of a seized South Korean fishing boat and offered to resume reunions of families separated by the Korean War. Officials from the two Koreas were scheduled to meet Friday to discuss the reunions.

South Korea has welcomed the moves and responded by offering humanitarian aid for flood victims in North Korea.

The military talks, if they are held, would be the first in almost two years. But Seoul is wary of what it considers the North Korean tactic of following up provocative acts with offers of talks to win concessions. ''Taking into consideration that North Korea has not admitted to or apologized for sinking the Cheonan, the government is reviewing the North's proposal cautiously,'' the Defense Ministry said in a statement Thursday.

On Wednesday, Kim Tae-hyo, a senior policy adviser for President Lee, reaffirmed that South Korea would withhold large-scale aid until North Korea apologized for the sinking. North Korea reportedly needs aid to help cope with extensive flood damage that has strained its already moribund economy at a time when Kim Jong-il is said to be preparing his son to inherit the leadership.

Without explanation, North Korea appears to have postponed a major gathering of delegates of the ruling Workers' Party it had said it would convene in early September. Mr. Kim was widely expected to use the meeting to help his son expand his power base.

The so-called Northern Limit Line - a maritime sea border drawn unilaterally by the United Nations Command at the end of the Korean War but never accepted by the North - has been the scene of three naval clashes in 11 years.

On Thursday, colonel-level officers from North Korea and the U.N. Command met on the border in their fifth session since the Cheonan sinking. They were discussing the timing and agenda for general-level talks on armistice issues related to the sinking.