The Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology is directly connected to the Iranian Government. Aside from evaluating and advising policy makers on science and technology issues, the largest research outfit in the country also provides a warez server where Photoshop, MS Office and many other applications can be downloaded for free, totally legal thanks to Iran’s lenient copyright policy.
In most of the western world the actions of the Iranian Government are often met with skepticism. Foreign governments get an uneasy feeling when Iran opens a nuclear facility, fearing it might lead to a nuclear arms program that would be an international threat.
Aside from nuclear issues, Iran has gained a bad reputation for censoring the public in its own country. These censorship issues reached new highs last year during the election protests, where the Government went as far as cutting citizens’ Internet access.
For copyright holders worldwide, the Iranian Government poses a significant threat. The country’s copyright law is set up to protect all copyrighted works produced by Iranians, but not those by creators from other countries.
Since 2001 Iran has been a member of the WIPO, and has acceded to several WIPO intellectual property treaties. However, the Iranian Government never signed the WIPO copyright treaty and other international copyright agreements that would make copying of foreign products unlawful.
This means that Iranians can share movies, music and applications as much as they like, as long as the copyright is not owned by an Iranian. In fact, even Government agencies actively help to distribute these works among the public, most notably the Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST).
From a publicly accessible FTP-server Iranian citizens have free access to a wide range of software, including multiple versions of Microsoft Office (97 to 2010) and Adobe’s Photoshop (5.5 to CS3). All the ‘pirated’ files come complete with serials, cracks and keygens and can be downloaded for free.
Source: http://torrentfreak.com/iranian-government-runs-public-warez-server-100824
In most of the western world the actions of the Iranian Government are often met with skepticism. Foreign governments get an uneasy feeling when Iran opens a nuclear facility, fearing it might lead to a nuclear arms program that would be an international threat.
Aside from nuclear issues, Iran has gained a bad reputation for censoring the public in its own country. These censorship issues reached new highs last year during the election protests, where the Government went as far as cutting citizens’ Internet access.
For copyright holders worldwide, the Iranian Government poses a significant threat. The country’s copyright law is set up to protect all copyrighted works produced by Iranians, but not those by creators from other countries.
Since 2001 Iran has been a member of the WIPO, and has acceded to several WIPO intellectual property treaties. However, the Iranian Government never signed the WIPO copyright treaty and other international copyright agreements that would make copying of foreign products unlawful.
This means that Iranians can share movies, music and applications as much as they like, as long as the copyright is not owned by an Iranian. In fact, even Government agencies actively help to distribute these works among the public, most notably the Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST).
From a publicly accessible FTP-server Iranian citizens have free access to a wide range of software, including multiple versions of Microsoft Office (97 to 2010) and Adobe’s Photoshop (5.5 to CS3). All the ‘pirated’ files come complete with serials, cracks and keygens and can be downloaded for free.
Source: http://torrentfreak.com/iranian-government-runs-public-warez-server-100824
