I love Microsoft and I love everything it does but there is still the fact that their applications and operation systems are far too much expensive for consumers in the Middle East which is where I come from, I simply can't afford to buy an operating system for over 1000 EGP, that's an insane price for a software in a poor country like Egypt..

Hi thre
having looked at the proposed pricing of Office 2010 the article here on Piracy Prevention just "doesn't compute".

It won't be long before ms Office 2010 hits "The usual places".

It's only by making the pricing AFFORDABLE and realistic that you will avoid piracy -- you can't solve this problem with Technology -- it doesn't matter what you do the Pirates can always invent a new get around.

The Infrastructure and burocracy of most organisations means there's a whole set of convoluted hoops that have to be gone through before development begins or "counter measures" can be taken.

The Pirates have no such restrictions -- so it doesn't really matter whatever MS does if the price is too high.

Trying to stop Piracy with the present pricing systems is just about on par with attempting to stop the tides.

Lots of Torrent sites are still broadcasting loud and clear in spite of all sorts of even BIASED courts trying to shut them down.

"Morality" or other human relational behaviour patterns doesn't enter in to it. It's simply a fact of life -- if a product CAN be obtained relatively painlessly almost for nothing then its going to be done.

I agree taking out a technet subscription is the best way for people on these types of Forums -- but even here this can cost more money than people have in many countries of the world.

BTW to prevent any mis understanding here -- I do NOT condone obtaining these products via torrents etc -- I'm merely stating why torrents exist and will continue to do so and no amount of technology will solve the problem apart from shutting down the ENTIRE Internet - which is never going to happen.

Cheers
jimbo

Hi Tews

-- for people like us getting a technet subscription is the obvious answer -- but we aren't normally likely to be big torrent users anyway -- I can't say I've NEVER used a torrent

I think a lot of us did during the pre RTM releases of W7 and always intended to get a LEGAL copy of W7 at the official release time.

However the issue is pricing -- 100 USD is a LOT of money for many many people in the middle East, Asia, China etc (and for some even even in Iceland at the moment -- about the only time in recent years I've seen people out on the streets protesting in a dark cold winters evening about the repayment terms of the failed banks to UK and Netherlands).

Technology won't actually solve the problem.

Actually it would be really interesting if MS embraced the "Cloud" concept and started going down the Open Source road. Look at companies like Red Hat and Novell who are essentially delivering a FREELY available Linux OS.

Cheers
jimbo