Pirated copies of Windows Vista with a price tag of just $4 are freely sold ad-hoc in the center of the Russian capital, Moscow, nearly on the steps of the Kremlin. Well, "nearly" is a tad exaggeration, but the fact of the matter is that the location is no more than 1.3 miles from the Kremlin. And the Kremlin, for those that don't know, is the Russian equivalent of the White House.

Microsoft is all aware of the alarming levels of piracy in Russia, but the image included toward the bottom is simply ridiculous. The picture is entitled "Pirates on lubyanka" and has been taken in the center of Moscow by Nikita Gazarov and then uploaded to Flickr. The commentaries on the image are those of the author and they pretty much sum up the whole story.

What you see is a prime example of software piracy in the downtown of the Russian capital. Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System are among the counterfeiter products being sold for a mere $4. But the bootlegged software extends beyond Microsoft products.

"Here you see a man selling pirated software - like Microsoft Windows Vista, MS Office 2007, Adobe Photoshop, InDesign, Pagemaker, Dreamweaver, Final Cut Pro, Mindmanager X6, 3dsmax, etc. (usually one CD costs no more than $4). I took this shot on Lubyanskaya square, on which huge headquarters of Russian Federal Security Service are located (50 yards of where I took the shot - you can see one of the buildings in the background), and 100 yards to the north - one of the biggest Police offices in Moscow. 1/3 mile to south-west is Moscow Kremlin, center of city and headquarters of our president Putin," wrote the author on the Nikita Gazarov blog.

While the picture clearly illustrates a transaction with pirated software, in the background you can see a police car cruising by. I don't know how Gazarov managed to get such a picture, but it's fantastic.