Bullshit. Russia has no democracy, even in the minds of its citizens, not to say in the government. It never had and it may never have democracy. At least, until Russia exists in its current shape of form.
My bet is that they have a chance for democracy only when Russia becomes a set of little independent states. As Russia in a nutshell, is just a Muscovy that occupied other sovereign states. It was exactly like they’re trying it with Ukraine currently, again. Again, as the previous one was in 1918, when Russia ‘incorporated’ other states, what we know as ussr.
It works very differently, as getting a free digital copy of anything don’t leave others without it. There’s no shortage of the product. If I steal a piece of bread from a shop, it won’t be there. If I pirate an episode of whatever tv show, it won’t disappear for others who were to buy it. Company won’t see a difference if I won’t buy the product otherwise. Even the opposite, it’s net positive for the company, as more people familiar with the product may come back to it later and buy it, or make others buy it. See Windows, Photoshop. Or for books, I may download expensive books to read, and if I see the book is worth buying, I may buy it if I can afford it. And/or I may tell others the book is great, so they will buy it. And in the end it gives the company more benefit then me not ever touching their product in the first place.
Sorry everyone, but I think if Apple do what they here say ‘bad’, I’d rather believe Apple. Their sales prove their design decisions, with very low content density.