Software Developer Beats Pirate in Boxing Ring

utki writes "The Moscow Times is reporting that the chief software architect at Russian software developer Cognitive Technologies, Andrei Smirnov, recently won a boxing match organized between himself and a software pirate he caught selling bootlegged software CD's at a Moscow market. At last, a practical and entertaining model for dealing with software piracy (MPAA and RIAA take note), and perhaps a useful way to channel Steve Ballmer's aggression too."

Hope this won't become standard...

[plankrwf]

This makes one wonder...
 
Is [insert software company here] hiring Boxing champions just in case someone decides to pirate their software ;-0

 
Bet a lot of 'open software' writers are happy that pirating GPL software isn't a serious option...

Roel

Re:remember kids:

[Lumpy]

Actually at times it is.

My daughter was constantly beign harassed by this girl at school that was patting her down and stealing her money, cellphone,etc...

I told her that next time to grab her hair and pull down as hard as she can and put her knee in her face as hard as she can without saying a word.

It worked. she did it, the brat went down hard with a broken nose and when the school tried to expel my daughter I was all over the Principal poised with a letter from my lawyer with documentation of the number of times we reported this to him and he did nothing and asked... " How do you want to handle this?" he backed down and let things go.

My daughter has the right to defend her self, and I tell her this daily. She has been "mugged" 5 times in the hallway by this girl and finally had enough. The school refused to deal with it and now the "tough kids" keep away from her because they now know she will fight back hard and without warning. And this is the good school in my area.

Being known as the "crazy" kid in school to the hoodlums is a good thing. I had to put a kid's head through the locker in Junior high to get them to leave me the hell alone. Parents need to be ready to fully back their children when they defend themselves.

Punish the User, not Just the Pusher

[Anonymous Coward]

Punishing the Pusher (of pirated software or narcotics) will not solve the problem because another pusher will just appear to sell his stuff to the same set of users. Let us try a different approach.

Punish the user. A company like Microsoft creates 2 versions of Vista. One version is the real McCoy. The other is a specially modified version that deliberately sabotages your computer system. Then, Microsoft creates a front company that contacts piracy rings in the West and in Asia. This front company "sells" the sabotaged version for 25 cents per pop.

Whereas the user expresses glee over the low cost of his pirated copy purchased in a dark alley in downtown Taipei, the Microsoft programmers will express glee after that user actually installs and runs the sabotaged copy. With any luck, the sabotaged copy will be installed in the computer controlling the anti-aircraft missiles of the Taiwanese army. Watch the sparks fly!

Re:remember kids:

[Surt]

That's all true, and we all do have the right to defend ourselves. But you won't always have the ability to do so, and so I certainly would have reported the thefts and any physical attacks to the police immediately after the principal refused to solve the problem. Once the police reports start getting taken, you'd be surprised how fast school administrators will jump to solve the problem. Police reports create a nice audit trail for lawsuits, and that fear will get your problem solved in no time, with the added benefit of teaching your kids that there are options beyond just responding to violence with violence.

Re:remember kids:

[drinkypoo]

Personally, I'd prefer it if it were ok to have street fights, but both sides had to sign a waiver in the presence of a responsible individual (like a law enforcement officer) and they should only be allowed to do this if they have their own health insurance or otherwise are capable of paying their own medical bills. Society shouldn't foot the bill for it, but who are we to tell people they can't fight if they want to?

Re:remember kids:

[Wh_TiGER]

My brother once told me :

"Violence won't solve anything, but it may dissuade from doing it again."

Re:remember kids:

[billcopc]

Perhaps in your part of the world, the police force still has power. Where I live, they would treat this sort of call like they do just about anything else that doesn't carry the sensationalism of violence, drugs or sex : they will "file" a "report" and forget about it, partly because they're overloaded with more serious and urgent issues, and partly because today's people can hardly wipe their own ass without calling someone in desperation. The police get calls from upper-white-trash folk about "shady characters" for sitting in a park with a notebook computer. One time the cops came to my parents apartment because a delusional neighbor claimed they were "tapping into her electrical circuits and stealing power from her fridge". WTF?!

Schools are deathly afraid of anything and anyone. They'd rather expel a victimized child than do something constructive about it, because a fair chunk of these idiot bully kids have idiot bully parents. I've personally taught many full classes of college students who threatened to sue me or cause physical harm to myself and my belongings, simply because they were too dumb and lazy to learn introductory C programming. Rather than shape up and put some actual effort into their education, they cried to mommy and daddy who is a lawyer/doctor/bar owner and sent threatening letters to myself and my boss. Was I a bad teacher ? I don't think so. Were they bad students ? Definitely! Am I a little scared that those teens are now in charge of major jobs ? Terrified!

Not so long ago, when someone issued a challenge, you took it, and you put in 110% effort to beat it. That's what growing up is supposed to be.

Re:remember kids:

[Anonymous Coward]

The only example I've heard is that Paraguay requires both participants to be registered blood donors.

Re:remember kids:

[MyLongNickName]

That is their job. I do not want police officers putting their personal opinions above the law. As far as pigs, they aren't. Actually, I do know a couple that would do more mood lying under a bus. But the majority are decent. I've gotten to know a few who work with the community, and they are decent guys who have to put up with a lot of shit.

I'd be willing to bet that half of the Slashdotters here would have gone off on someone (physically) at least one time dealing with the stuff that they have to put up with. I hear folks whine about their sys admin job and getting the same stupid question 20 times. One anecdote: Try going into someone's house from a 9-1-1 call, finding a guy drowning in his own alchol induced vomit, going to pull him out of it, and having his family members getting in your face yelling at you becuase it took you 10 minues to get there.

Of course, I think Rodney King got off too easy.

Re:remember kids:

[Anonymous Coward]

One time I was sprayed with mace by a few stupid kids about 1 ft shorter than me while I was visiting Russia. It was at close enough range that I suspect they tagged themselves pretty good too. It took 3 days to wear off.

I certainly didn't give them any money, but I mentioned "Fuck off" and turned around and slowly walked away. Most Russians don't have contact lenses, which I was later told gave me an extra 30-45 seconds. They probably thought I was Superman.

My friend wanted to beat the hell out of them, and I was tempted, but I was more unhappy with the prospect of some police coming over and soliciting bribes from the "rich foreigners" to get out of a Russian jail, pay medical bills and "fines" for "beating up the poor local children."

I'm glad I didn't fight back that time.

Re:remember kids:

[Anonymous Coward]

I had a similar situation to the one your daughter was in when I went to school and managed to solve it without having to resort to violence. My plan, which worked perfectly, was to:

1) Ask my history teacher to let me switch desks since I claimed the sunlight that reflected through the window was distracting. The real reason was to move between two large members of the basketball team who were failing history and in danger of being academically ineligeable for the upcoming season.

2) Study really hard for the next two tests so that when those guys copied off me, they got good (for them) scores.

3) Fake a sickness the day of the next test, and tell those who I sat next to that it was because the bully had hassled me and I had to go the the hospital.

That was all it took. The two guys that needed me to pass history beat the s*#t out of the bully and it became public knowledge that no one should mess with me. The beauty part was that the people copying off me were so dumb that they turned my 90+% scores into 70% scores so the teacher was none the wiser.

Violence is generally not the answer

[visionsofmcskill]

I would say thats a pretty over the top and almost criminal reaction.

Your daughter does indeed have a right to defend herself, as we all do. But telling her to take an action that is far more severe and dangerous than the bullying is a dubious reaction at best. I understand your desire to have her fight back and make her boundries known to her aggressor, but using THAT type is force is NOT justifiable.

The larger concern here is she could have killed the girl if that nose had broken wrong. And we must also remember that this is how the path to guns in school starts. The gangs started off with just fists, they moved on to sticks, then chains and knives, and eventually guns.

If we lived in a society with less control mechanisms (lack of police and school staff, etc...) then i could see a need for more drastic measures. But you run a real risk of hitting the wrong kid who, feeling that their "reputation" is on the line, may come after your child with a baseball bat after school one day.

I went to several schools, some extremely wealthy and "good", and others the opposite, and ill tell you in bopth schools i saw the same stuff. Some kid gets beat-up by someone he was bullying, and he and his friends get together after school and ambush him with weapons.

The best way to handle the problem is certainly to teach your child to stand up and fight back within the context of the situation (dont go for the throat if its someone you have to deal with every day... as in tommorrow, and the day after), but also to actively and aggresiovely pursue police, school, disciplinarian, and parental measures (talk to the other kids parents).

I also got picked on in school, i fought back and never backed down even to my own suffering sometimes... most of the kids left me alone because they just want an easy picking. But this one kid went to far (aimed a very real looking BB gun at me, some rocks thrown, etc...)... after fighting him (grabbing the gun like a kid who thinks hes about to get shot!!)... i went STRAIGHT to the cops. Didnt give a s*&^ what the other kids thought.

He of course called me a rat, etc... and when the other kids started to say the same, i told them straight up, you aim a gun at me i dont give a f$$# im going to the cops and F%$# you if you think im a rat for it.

They never brought it up again, and they never messed with me again.

Its all about respect and confidence. If you exude confidence, even if your choices arent liked, and your tactics shuned, kids will tend to leave you be. If they feel you arent certain in how your going to react, or if they think your weak in defending yourself (physically, legally, or verbally).. THEN they will look to exploit you.

Just be carefull of escalation. If they know youll bring the cops... theyll leave you alone (unless their totally our of their minds... in which case your screwed anyway)

When did we drink the Kool-Aid?

[SleepyHappyDoc]

I've noticed virtually every comment refers to the bootlegging of software as 'piracy'. These are not our words, but the words of the propaganda machine, and yet we seem to be using them as our own. The bootlegger in question appears to have been selling their bootlegged wares (warez?), which certainly makes them the lowest level of scum, giving the rest of the casual bootleggers a bad name, but a 'pirate'? When did we drink the Kool-Aid and accept this word as the right term for this kind of activity?

Not trying to be a grammar nazi, I just hate to see the propaganda machine scoring a win, and I see many threads in other discussions disputing the use of 'piracy' as it relates to downloaded music.

Re:remember kids:

[MutantHamster]

Concerning number one is the problem that school is not a boxing ring. There is a chance you will encourage a bully to leave you alone temporarily, but often a child like this won't accept getting bested like that. They are likely to plan some sort of retaliation; it's not uncommon for them to get a group of other students to ambush you. There's also the risk that they may have a gun. It may sound drastic but at the public school I go to in a decent, suburban area it's not uncommon for kids to claim popularity based on their criminal records (or the ones they claim to have). No doubt some "gangster" could easily try to prove how tough he is by threatening you with a gun.

Then there is just the issue of whether or not you would be successful at fighting back? What if you only make your assbeating worse by pissing them off? I'm sure most of the posters of Slashdot are not paragons of physical fitness.

Concerning the second item, well, that's much simpler. Last year a kid who had been messing with me relentlessly ended up punching me in the face. He's got to be about 20 pounds smaller than I am, and his beating wasn't exactly merciless. Bearing in mind the fact that I had a large accordion folder in each hand for the duration of the fight, I could've pretty easily punched him in the face.

He punched me in the face once and them jumped on my back and then an older kid pulled him off of me before I had even really realized I was being attacked. I purposefully did not fight back for a number of reasons: 1) I didn't feel like my life or health were in any immediate danger, the only actual effect it had on me physically was my face was slightly red where he hit me, and 2) I figured I would get in less trouble if I didn't do anything back. Unfortunately it turned out "less trouble" meant "two days less of ISS." So now I got my ass kicked in front of an audience and I got ISS; I basically got the shaft.

But get this, I'm much more self confident now than I would've been if I'd "confronted" him. Why? Because I am not a douche bag. I don't believe in fighting unless I feel that it's the only way I have to defend myself, and I don't make exceptions for people who supposedly "have it coming." None of my friends think any less of me because of it because... that's what friends are. If they did change their opinion of me because of it then they are not the kind of people I'd want as friends. This kid is going to wind up either in jail, or dropping out of highschool, meanwhile I am living a pleasant life with real friends. All of my classes this year and next are either Advanced Placement or otherwise exclusive and I don't have to deal with any of the white-trash, Tech Prep trash that makes up the majority of the school, and I'm still good at being funny, and acting, and playing music and all the things I was good at before. Why exactly should I feel less confident now?

If you're wondering what I did to make him hit me, it depends on who you ask. He claims I was talking about having sex with his sister. In actuality, I called him Quackenbush, after a character from John Knowles' A Separate Peace.

Re:When did we drink the Kool-Aid?

[Kickasso]

If my source doesn't lie, the word "pirate" in this sense is first recorded in 1701.

Re:remember kids:

[Captain Chaos]

I'd have to agree with you on that. In some cases the bullying can be a serious threat during the act itself. I'm not a fan of Fox news, but Fox 6 in Milwaukee did an award winning undercover investigation called the Bully Project that was quite an eye opener. Along with talking about kids who committed suicide, I clearly remember the story of one young girl who was beat so bad that she received 2 concussions within a couple week period. She liked playing hockey, but her doctor had warned her that it wasn't wise due to the possibility that the next blow to the head would probably kill her. What bothered me the most about the footage from their hidden cameras though was watching the indifference from the teachers on much of the footage. In one instance a young boy was trying to get away from his bullys by climbing a fence and they ripped him right off the fence and continued pounding on him with 2 teachers only a short distance away that were too engrossed in their conversation to do something.

Bullying isn't always a case of the victim walking away with some bruises and maybe a bloody nose, sometimes the damage is much more serious. While I agree with slackartist that your best bet is generally to try and avoid the situation or resolve it non-violently, sometimes things just don't work out that way.

Re:remember kids:

[Thing 1]

There's a big difference between somebody who won't defend themself and somebody who will fight a losing battle.

Exactly. As a child, I never understood the bullies. I would be nice to them, and they'd pound me into the ground again. Then, the instant I started to fight back (around 8th grade), I started gaining respect from them, and actually became friends with some of them.

The biggest difference between doormats and losing fighters is: the aggressor knows exactly what to expect from a doormat: they will get what they want, and the doormat will not challenge them. But a losing fighter, especially one like the silent hair-pulling face-knee-er, makes the bullies worry that they might not obtain what they want without getting hurt in the process.

If my parents had taught me that back when I started getting picked on, I would have had a much easier time up to the beginning of high school.