Pirating Software? Choose Microsoft! 264
An anonymous reader writes "ArsTechnica is running a story regarding comments by Microsoft Business Group President Jeff Raikes, who had a pithy comment on the subject of software piracy. His view is that, should software piracy occur, Microsoft's desire is that the pirated software should be theirs. Potentially, in the future, they could then convert the illegal users from the 'dark side' into legit users who obtain licenses. 'We understand that in the long run the fundamental asset is the installed base of people who are using our products. What you hope to do over time is convert them to licensing the software.' Obviously Microsoft prefers the market to use their software even if it's pirated, rather than the alternative: the use of free software."
The link (Score:5, Funny)
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RIAA likes pirating too (Score:3, Insightful)
But most people don't like the settlements and license compliance audits that eventually catch up to them.
Death to pirates! (Score:5, Interesting)
There really isn't an excuse to pirate anymore. In days gone by there just wasn't an option for people who couldn't afford software that cost far more than the hardware, especially in the developing world, starving students, etc. But now we can offer those people a safe, legal and effective alternative. Piracy is just unfair competition for us.
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If said students then become proficient in their use, when they've got their degrees, they become skilled workers, trained in the use of specific tools, and often in positions to influence company purchase. Thus, piracy in the
Re:Death to pirates! (Score:5, Insightful)
Find a vendor who doesn't offer a student discount. Oh, you don't want the crippled student version? It does everything you need to pass the course, so don't use that watermark on every page to justify stealing the full edition.
> please don't give me Gimp when I ask for Photoshop.
If you can AFFORD Photoshop, great! Many people who edit photographs professionally believe the price is more than offset by their increased productivity. But if you can't afford Photoshop you have no right to steal it. Don't you even try justifying it either. Try Paint Shop Pro if you just can't learn The GIMP. PSP is well regarded and much less expensive.
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> price is more than offset by their increased productivity. But if you can't afford Photoshop you
> have no right to steal it. Don't you even try justifying it either.
Er, why not?
If you can't AFFORD Photoshop, who loses out if you use the WAREZ(TM) edition instead? Perhaps the developers of the GIMP should sue you because they lost out on a "sale"?
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They allow (in the past *ENCOURAGED*) piracy among certain users to gain the benefit of the "network effect".
The day everyone has to pay the appropriate price for microsoft software is the day they start losing.
Win3.11 was *given* to pirates to pass around for free back in the day.
Basically, companies that sell to businesses don't mind home users pirating (because they wouldn't buy it anyway), they get the network eff
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Re:Death to pirates! (Score:5, Insightful)
If, on the other hand, you actually applied yourself to learning how to use a competing, Open Source application instead of their proprietary one (sure, the keyboard shortcuts and menu items may not be in the same place, and the procedures to accomplish certain tasks might be a little different -- are you really telling me you are so fucking thick that you can't learn the new ones?), you would be doing something to screw The System. You'd be breaking your dependency on The System.
Microsoft have driven competitors out of business by tolerating piracy. Thanks to closed protocols which make for poor interoperability, it's more attractive to use a Microsoft product than a competing product. And ease of piracy means that, for those who are prepared to do it, all software is effectively available gratis; price is not an issue. Thus, "everybody" pirates MS Office, and vendors of alternative office software lose out on sales. Now, if it were technically impossible (or just highly undesirable) to pirate MS Office, then maybe we'd see competing office suites.
Open Source Software throws another spanner in the works. Sun can't be driven out of business by Microsoft's tolerance of piracy, since their bottom line isn't affected by people not using OpenOffice.org; which is why Microsoft hate OSS so.
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I agree. I think part of the reason MS Office is ubiquitous was that it was so easy to pirate back in the day. As a result it got huge traction in offices and homes. Now it's the 'defacto standard.' If it hadn't been as easily pirated I think users (particularly at home) would have sought out other (cheaper) options like MS-Works, WordPerfect, StarOffice, OpenOffice etc. and MS-Office wouldn't have the market share it has today.
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I've long argued piracy is good for the various companies
Indeed.... and I'd daresay that the article summary only gives half the story. Specifically, that not only "should software piracy occur, Microsoft's desire is that the pirated software should be theirs", but that given the choice between someone legally purchasing a rival's software or pirating MS's, MS would rather that person pirated *their* software.
This is just speculation, and I wouldn't expect them to admit it; it would reveal their mentality and justify piracy, which they can't be seen to be doin
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Serif Photo Plus [freeserifsoftware.com] is free as in beer, and it does 80% of what Photoshop does.
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Not at all. But remember, we DO believe in copyrights, it is what makes our licenses work. If we expect people to obey the GPL it isn't much of a mental leap to believe people should honor Microsoft's copyright. Forget the EULA, it is worthless and almost certainly unenforcable outside of site licenses which are real signed contracts. But Windows/Office ARE copyrighted works and people shouldn't be bootlegging em.
If someone tries to justify it
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It is an interesting viewpoint, but I don't think the poster is advocating "shafting" users. The viewpoint being advocated, even if it did seem to be seasoned with a little bit of sarcasm, is sound--the enforcement of copyright. The copyright laws that protect Microsoft code are the same laws that protect F/OSS.
By advocating the copyright of contributers to F/OSS, you are also advocating the copyri
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I'm still waiting for the day when the BSA picks up their feet and actually cracks down on a company that's illegally using F/OSS source code though. Why doesn't the BSA enforce copyrights for OSS like it does for closed source?
I'm left with no other option than to believe the BSA really is a shill for Microsoft and they wi
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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
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Just Say No, Reporting is Bad. (Score:2)
Free Software/Open Source folk need to be even more anal retentive than the BSA regarding software piracy. Zero tolerance! Report em all. Take piracy off the table as an option and we can make some major inroads from people who can't afford Microsoft and other commercial products now.
That's a very bad idea which plays into the M$ game plan and makes you a scape goat. Getting the user to "pay later" [slashdot.org] is what the BSA is for.
It's better to have nothing to do with "piracy" and help people with things that
Re:is this how CS students make friends? :P (Score:5, Funny)
"911, what is your emergency?"
"My neighbor just pirated Microsoft Office."
"what?"
"My neighbor is pirating software!"
*click*
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> come running for Linux and the rest of it already, they're never going to.
Getting caught has never been a realistic threat. So lets make it one. I'm saying that so long as the choice is Pirate Office or suffer the minor inconviences of OO.o people will take the pirate deal so long as it has no negative consequences. They will reason that MS Office is a valuable product that they are getting for free
Re:Not gonna happen (Score:5, Interesting)
My wife is working on her masters thesis. OO.o is simply not compatible enough with MS office to be usable. A couple years ago I made a big push to go legit on all my apps. This meant dumping or paying for many tools I use regularly. I own Premiere 6 and PS6, but I was using newer versions. Dumped the newer versions. I was using many instances of windows not licensed, thus having a nice homogeneous network. Now I have a couple win2KPro machines and a couple WinXP Pro machines, my server was migrated to SOL18 (hey, it works for my needs perfectly), and my kids PCs are now running ubuntu and Wine for the reader rabbit software they so love.
When it came down to office I tried to migrate to OO.o because of the rather enormous cost of MS office Pro. No dice. Popwerpoint and its OO.o equiv were horribly incompatible. Word and it's equivalent had irreconcilable differences. I simply owned up to having to buy a copy and purchased the student edition, bummer it can't be in two places. I acquired an old site license for office 97 and am using that on all the windows machines other than the wife's notebook.
Until there is a good office suite with exchange compatibility there will be real trouble getting people off windows.
Until the linux community comes to an agreement and throws their support to a desktop linux distro and quits with the religious wars there will be trouble getting people off windows (linspire/ubunto maybe?).
Until the random hardware from the random computer store plugs and plays on the above intra-distro supported desktop there will be trouble getting people off windows.
Face it. While we can all have our boutique distro, if you want joe sixpack to use linux it the community must standardize on 1 (one) window manager, 1 (one) desktop, and 1 (one) functional application suite. Joe doesn't like choices, joe likes feeling safe with the default choice.
-nB
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Until there is a good office suite with exchange compatibility there will be real trouble getting people off windows. Until the linux community comes to an agreement and throws their support to a desktop linux distro and quits with the religious wars there will be trouble getting people off windows (linspire/ubunto maybe?). Until the random hardware from the random computer store plugs and plays on the above intra-distro supported desktop there will be trouble getting people off windows.
Yes, and it's your job to make that happen. Donate time to free software projects, donate money to free software projects. Otherwise (and I'm not saying you don't) you have no grounds for complaining.
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I have donated both money and time. My coding skills are nowhere good enough to donate code, but I do my damndest to submit thorough bug reports to developers of apps I use. I've donated money before, and I will again. I'm rather broke so my donations are usually $20 or less, but everything helps.
-nB
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I have some enormously complicated documents with hundreds of graphics and 2.1 is the first version to import them correctly.
I also recommend you open your wife's document *every* release and generate any crash reports you can. That's the only way it will meet your eneds.
2.3 looks to be a fabulous release too.
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Also, I don't see him mentioning any concrete example.
I've been using OO.o for years, even while exchanging quite large and more complex documents with MS Office users, I've had only very minor issues. Now with OO.o 2.1 document exchange with Word, Excel and Powerpoint is almost flawless.
We're even had a pilot with OO.o at work, we have found much less issues than I imagined. Now we
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Anyway, yes this is first hand experience. I have no issue with making it work (I take issue with the insane bloating though). Fact is my wife finds it un-usable and she is basically jane sixpack. If she says it's not good enough then I have to agree.
-nB
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Moreover, as the article clearly indicates, Microsoft wants consumers to pirate Microsoft software. They'll go after business if those businesses are large enough to make it worth Microsoft's while, but consumers? The backlash would be enormous (see the RIAA) and the gain minimal, if any.
Basically, you're
Yay! (Score:4, Insightful)
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An alternative to Offline Update is Autopatcher [neowin.net] which does have releases for Vista. I used Autopatcher for XP for a while befor
So that explains WGA relaxation? (Score:5, Insightful)
I recall in the late 80s early 90s MS almost encouraged piracy, in an effort to kill off a slew of alternate OSes.
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Lot of people don't remember it, but it used to be that Microsoft software was the easiest to install. Other people were doing dongles, and phone activation, and all this crap, and to get Office, you just bummed a disk, and copied an activation code off the internet. Easy as pie.
Then they clamped down on the business users, and made a mint. Now the
Validation? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Validation? (Score:4, Informative)
Microsoft doesn't really make any money off of Windows via off the shelf retail editions. They make money off of taxing OEMs by shipping their OS with new boxes regardless if you want or need a license, they get paid. They then make money off of site licenses where its common for the box to come with a license and then the site pays a separate license.
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"Almost", you say? Then it's time for today's Slashdot Time Machine Trip (TM):
Cachunk. Beepbeepbeepbeepbeep... Borp!
[You.Are.In.1990.] -- "Listen, we can outplay the enemy," says Billy Gates The T'ird in a fetching jacquard-knit sweater. "IBM, Quarterdeck, Digital Research, and even those twits at Apple... They're disorganised and they think that glitzy advertising alone will make them winners. Advertisi
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in the late 80s early 90s MS almost encouraged piracy
More appropriately to the topic at hand, in the late 90's one, um, apparently merely had to enter 111111111-111 to dismiss the license screen for Office 98. Very clever and devious algorithm, that. Office was still spreading like the plague and quashing WordPerfect, and more than a few installations, including many fully paid licensed copies that I saw in action, used MS's shortcut license key. It was similarly easy with Office 97. It was so trivial to pirate that it really did become ubiquitous, even whe
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Hmm... fairly obvious I'd say (Score:3, Insightful)
The more they tighten their grip, the more star^H^H^H^H people will slip through their fingers.
Re:Hmm... fairly obvious I'd say (Score:4, Interesting)
If every person who pirates Microsoft software suddenly switched to Ubuntu and OpenOffice, suddenly the Microsoft lock-in (eg. doc files, wmv videos, wma audio files, etc) would not be quite as powerful as it is at the moment.
Re:Hmm... fairly obvious I'd say (Score:5, Informative)
"Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, but people don't pay for the software. Someday they will, though. As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade." -- Bill Gates at University of Washington "town hall" meeting in 1998
So, no, despite what TFA says, it is not the case that Raikes' words "do not appear to echo the sentiments of his company..."
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What I think is important to realize is that this is something somewhat unique to software. You don't see BMW being happy that their cars are being stolen - although there might be some 'prestige' factor in being the car thief's favorite, more theft can quickly (1) cause people to fear owning BMWs, and (2) cause the insurance costs for owning a BMW to skyrocket.
Microsoft's piracy strategy is only po
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Not New (Score:2, Insightful)
That's so "nice" of them... (Score:5, Insightful)
The "logic" behind those comments vary little from the neighborhood crack dealer who gives the first "hit" for free.
Get you on the habit, get you hooked, then pay through the nose... so to speak.
Re:That's so "nice" of them... (Score:4, Interesting)
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Note that the BSA usually includes people that use free software in the pirate category, as it usually does not generate any significant income for its member companies.
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Microsoft is already playing crack dealer (Score:2)
why (Score:4, Insightful)
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It's simple, they haven't changed monopoly thinking. They have not recognised their actions could or would have consumers looking at alternatives. They were fully expecting everyone to migrate to Vista. Vista has had a pretty cool reception. I doubt it's being pir
For Whom the Bell Tolls (Score:3, Interesting)
Very much so. Let me add my blog here on what I observed last weekend w.r.t. piracy of Vista:
Last weekend saw me in Low Yat, the almost world-famous place as far as 'cheap' software is concerned. No, I don't buy my software in Low Yat, I download legal software for free
of course! (Score:2, Insightful)
Still not gonna do it. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Still not gonna do it. (Score:5, Funny)
When I tell people that I refuse to install a pirated version of MS office on their PC's they get peeved at me, and when I install a free alternative they give it 5 seconds, don't try to learn it, and get a pirated version of MS Office from someone else. Furthering Microsoft's hegemony.
Maybe if I tried to sell OO.o, with a pitch like.
"I don't even have a copy of that piece of junk(MS Office) I use a more robust office package for the business, I got it for a song at $1,100 per seat. I can let you bum a license off me for free."
But these are friends mostly, and I hate being dishonest particularly with people I choose to do favors for. If only I had the soul of a MS marketing director...
-manno
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See, there's your mistake right there. MS marketing directors don't have Souls.
Alternatives? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Leave out the words "closed-source proprietary" and replace "pirate" with copy and you find lots of alternatives. None of them will remotely shut down or have anyone smarter than SCO try legal action against you.
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But is that still piracy, even if the company no longer exists?
Nothing new (Score:2, Informative)
-uso.
Drug dealer methods (Score:5, Interesting)
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How is this news? How is it surprising? (Score:2, Redundant)
I really don't see how this is news, or that there's really anything to discuss.
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With GNU software there's a risk that they will lose a customer *forever*.
There are bone-headed executives all around that don't see the wisdom of this, but smart companies figure
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bad car analogy (Score:2)
Hello? Adobe? (Score:3, Interesting)
What I don't get is the validity of TFA's statement in parallel with Microsoft's scarily effective product activation.
I only surprised they said it... (Score:2)
It was actuall
No Thanks (Score:2)
i rather run my pirated copy of Linux...
ancient news (Score:2)
There are only a couple change from the long ago is the present. The first is the demand that new PCs come with a properly licensed version of Windows. As far as I can tell, this program helps cover the fixed costs at MS,
I wonder how they feel about... (Score:2, Interesting)
A) Worth paying for
B) Worth looking for your old install CD for
Not that that describes me, in any way.
Also, apple software is easier to pirate, excluding server. Don't even bother trying to pirate OSX server. Not that I've tried >_>
Sounds like (Score:2, Funny)
Hit The Nail On The Head (Score:2)
Before you bash me as a ba
War of the Word (Score:2, Interesting)
Old news. (Score:2, Redundant)
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-212942.html [com.com]
"Although about 3 million computers get sold every year in China, but people don't pay for the software," he said. "Someday they will, though. As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."
The Chinese were/are pretty sensitive to the "addicted" keyword. It probably reminded them of the British opiu
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Microsoft piracy. (Score:2, Interesting)
gaming (Score:2)
Allegedly Seiko (Score:2)
Man, I've said this about 10 times. (Score:2)
A long time ago a small, nobody 'heavy metal' rock group made a recording of their 'jam sessions', labelled it 'garage days' and told people to distribute it like crazy. copy copy copy - give it out for free. They're now known as metallica, the clueless sods cha
duh (Score:2)
Software `piracy' == theft? (Score:5, Insightful)
Ever heard e.g. a car dealer say: `We don't like people stealing cars, but if they do steal cars, we'd like them to steal ours'??
Or Joe Sixpack: `I don't like people stealing money, but if they do, please steal mine'?
Thank you captain obvious! (Score:2)
Dugg down for being a brain-dead obvious thing.
Oops, sorry, wrong site.
P.S. - Slashdot... WORST... CAPCHA... EVER!! I can't read that crap worth a shit. It's supposed to make it difficult for scripts to post, not legit humans. Someone should tell our fearless leaders that on
Surprising? (Score:2)
But I am surprised that MS have come out and said this publically.
They're treading very thin ice here... they have always taken a harsh harsh stance on piracy, yet it's (by their own admission) in their best interests for people to pirate their software. You can't have it both ways, Microsoft.
Basically they have said "Piracy is evil and illegal and it is the worst thing you could possibly do to an honest hard working company such as ourselves"
This is news? It made Bill Gates the richest man (Score:2)
Piracy of applications and operating systems removes price as a competitive factor in the market. In a perfect world of free goods, you choose only superior goods, never inferior goods, because price is removed from the decision mechanism. That is a proveable outcome in all microeconomic analysis.
This means that as long as Microsoft can leverage its existing sales from other products to offset losses in emerging applications to out spend and outperform the com
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This is the intent, but they blew it with the WGA and BSA. Instead of piracy, and later buying a legal copy, the move to Open Source has been driven by this. They made it obvious that a pirated copy caries a big risk due to the big stick.. Their carrot compared to alternatives made the decision to go to Apple or Linux a simple choice for many.
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If you insist on a relationship analogy, its more like co-habiting with someone you want to marry, in the hope they marry you later.
The main difference is that you get the lock-in immediately.
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Think of all the people you've heard of who won't use Linux because their favorite game or tax software won't run on it.
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On the contrary. After buying software that had demos that worked much better than the product, I have on many occasions tried a pirated copy before buying a legit copy.
Most of the times it was related to copy protection problems. I have a hard drive. The demo can be installed and runs fine. The actual product won't run without the disk in the drive. This is unac
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Actually in the case of software, this analogy would perhaps be more realistic as "why buy the milk when you can get the cow for free?"...especially when you consider micropayments, forced upgrade payments, nagware copy protection schemes, etc.
To paraphrase Oscar Wilde (Score:2)
The only worse than being pirated is *not* being pirated
wow, you did hose yourself (Score:2)
at the same time-- it's a one use at a time license....
with the one purchase copy...
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- It could take you ten minutes to register your copy of Office if you take the slowest option, when there are faster options available to you and you decided not to take them,
- If your laptop breaks you have to get another copy of Office, or you could call MS who have no qualms about giving out new keys if you have an issue where the original computer is unusable,
- That you could have spent $380 on something else you would find just as useful, which is your fault as a consumer f
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