Comment PP and Freedom of Software in Russia (Score 1) 116
I'm a member of Russian Pirate Party ( http://pirate-party.ru/ ). Of course it is not officially registered one, since until now regulations are rather tough for new party registration in Russia. One attempt was declined in 2011 with a reason given - "High Sea piracy is illegal in Russia".
Official Powers in Russia are tolerant with PP agenda - one can remember famous Microsoft vs. school director Ponosov case (Putin sided in favour of Ponosov, who was acquitted eventually), Government Order No. 2299-p, that mandates transition to Free Software by 2015 for all Govt. agencies (which is an official term for Govt. documents), and few months ago President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev held a meeting with Internet activists where the Pirate Party of Russia was invited.
Having said that, there is multitude of criminal cases on basis of Criminal Code articles 271-272 (unauthorised access and viral software) and 146 (copyright related violations), mostly against people selling unapproved software and anti-copy protection code on CDs, as well as people installing same as a service. So far, very few cases of prosecution attempts (without much success) for personal/private use of unlicensed software are known.