"by Tina Susman, Los Angeles Times | May 25, 2008
BAGHDAD - He is everywhere but nowhere, an unseen geek whose skills as a software pirate are so impressive that others are now pirating his work....
In some ways, Malik is just the sort of entrepreneur the Americans hoped would emerge in Iraq after the US-led invasion and ouster of Saddam Hussein. Malik, 34, took his skills and interests and turned them into a thriving business run by an Iraqi, for Iraqis....
Malik is also a symbol of how hopes have been derailed since Hussein's overthrow five years ago. Malik left Iraq in early 2007 because of the violence plaguing the country and lives with his wife and two children in Syria. He makes good money, but he doesn't spend it in Iraq and has no intention of returning as long as it remains dangerous. His business, built on dodging copyright restrictions designed to protect producers of software programs, is an example of Iraqis working around the system to survive.
But if China does it -- or some other "enemy" -- it is a problem, right?
Pfffffffttt!
This is especially evident in the telecommunications industry, which exploded in 2003 as Iraqis got their first taste of unfettered Internet access and cellphones. The government-run State Company for Internet Services says 250,000 Iraqis subscribe to Internet service, but an American adviser to the Ministry of Communications says the actual number is probably about 12 million.
That the liberation? If you can get electricity, you can log on to the Internet.
Or you can use the cellphone and give yourselves brain cancer!!!
Most people, the adviser said, use services set up by neighborhood vendors. The state can't keep up with demand, so private entrepreneurs are taking over by purchasing Internet service and reselling it to others using cheap wireless routers that began flooding in after the country's borders opened.
"It's completely uncontrolled. It's a free market blowing in," said the adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with US State Department regulations....
As long as there are no laws here governing copyright infringement, it is virtually impossible to stop the trend. A US Embassy official said copyright protection wasn't a high priority as long as the United States remained preoccupied with Iraq's political and security problems.
But, but, but... I heard "Al-CIA-Duh" is almost defeated and the Iraqi government is doing a great job on Sadr's group.
WTF?
