[ossig] [Fwd: [A2k] Mircosoft exec: if you must pirate, use counterfeit Windows]

[Ezwan Aizat Bin Abdullah Faiz]

-------- Forwarded Message --------
> From: Michelle Childs <michelle.childs at cptech.org>
> To: a2k at lists.essential.org
> Cc: ip at tacd.org
> Subject: [A2k] Mircosoft exec: if you must pirate, use counterfeit
> Windows
> Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 09:02:18 +0000
> 
> --
> [ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/13/ms_piracy_benefits/
> If you must pirate, use counterfeit Windows
> MS exec gets pragmatic about piracy
> By John Leyden → More by this author
> Published Tuesday 13th March 2007 13:14 GMT
> 
> A senior Microsoft exec has admitted that some software piracy
> actually ends up benefiting the technology giant because it leads to
> purchases of other software packages.
> 
> In this way, some software pirates who might otherwise never try
> Microsoft products become paying customers, according to Microsoft
> business group president Jeff Raikes.
> 
> "If they're going to pirate somebody, we want it to be us rather than
> somebody else," Raikes told delegates at last week's Morgan Stanley
> Technology conference in San Francisco, Information Week reports.
> 
> Raikes' stance seems at odds with the Microsoft's recent aggressive
> anti-piracy push, via its controversial Windows Genuine Advantage
> Programme, which resulted in many instances where legitimate users
> were identified as using "dodgy" software. And that's to say nothing
> of the millions Microsoft spends every year on other anti-piracy
> initiatives.
> 
> Rather than saying that piracy isn't a problem per-se, Raikes reckons
> that between 20 and 25 per cent of US software is pirated, he argues
> pragmatically that it can have benefits over the long-run. "We
> understand that in the long run the fundamental asset is the
> installed base of people who are using our products," Raikes said.
> "What you hope to do over time is convert them to licensing the
> software," he said.
> 
> Although Microsoft has no intentions of scaling down (much less
> abandoning) its effort to chase software counterfeiters, Raikes
> argues that it's against its interests to push illegitimate users so
> hard that they wind up using alternative products. "You want to push
> towards getting legal licensing, but you don't want to push so hard
> that you lose the asset that's most fundamental in the business,"
> Raikes said, adding that Microsoft is developing "pay-as-you-go"
> software pricing models in a bid to encourage low-income people in
> emerging countries to use its technology.
> 
> Raikes' intervention provides a welcome perspective on the software
> piracy debate which has for a long time been dominated by the
> simplistic argument, wheeled out ad nauseum by industry groups such
> as the Business Software Alliance, that a copy of pirated software is
> equivalent to a lost sale. ®
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Michelle Childs
> michelle.childs at cptech.org
> 
> 
> 
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