In one of the first ever actions of its kind in Russia, the Moscow City Government Internal affairs Department Economic Crimes Unit this month raided two Moscow computer firms Vysokie Teknology and Triatoris, which were selling pirated software. Vysokie Teknology was selling CD-ROMs containing unlicensed Microsoft Corp software, Triatoris, a computer assembly firm, was selling unlicensed Microsoft operating system software pre-installed on its personal computers. Controlled purchases were organized at the two companies on June 26 and July 4. In later raids software was confiscated and the shops were closed down. No arrests were made and no civil or criminal cases have yet been filed, although the police made video recordings of the raids. Though there is as yet no intellectual property case for the firms to answer, the Business Software Alliance says that it plans to pursue these cases in the Arbitrary Court as infringements of copyright. Russia has one of the highest software piracy rates in Europe and the AllianceBSA estimates that in Russia over 95% of all software in use is an unlicensed copy.
