Цифры говорят
Russia’s “Astra” without Times New Roman
12.12.2016 |
Many Russian companies have been affected by the sanctions, and RusBitTech Scientific and Production Association is no exception. The developer of the Linux-based Astra OS for Russian governmental and law enforcement agencies, it has come across some difficulties when trying to obtain font patents from the rightholder.
RusBitTech has been negotiating for months with Monotype Imaging, an American corporation that owns the rights on many popular fonts including Times New Roman. Initially, Monotype requested an astronomical €650 for each Astra Linux workstation (with €3-4 a standard price) but later agreed to reduce the price to €130.
The parties almost reached a consensus when Monotype suddenly withdrew from a bargain. As it turned out, RusBitTech had been involved in the Moscow Aerospace Exhibition (MAKS), and the American company decided to pull out of the deal in support of the anti-Russian sanctions against companies cooperating with the Ministry of Defense.
In its turn, Astra placed an order with the local developer ParaType that will introduce its own alternative fonts to the Russian OS.
