Continuing the Fight Against Piracy.

[JMH]

I wanted to add my thoughts to the blog following Alex’s departure from Microsoft last week, and give our readers a little bit of insight into our focus for the new year.
Alex, you’ve been a key part of Microsoft’s anti-piracy efforts for many years and I think I speak for the company in saying a heartfelt thank you for your years of service. I personally enjoyed having you on my staff – your depth of experience and strategic insights have been invaluable, and we all extend best wishes to you in your new venture. I’m sure we’ll cross paths many times in the future - we’re certainly not slowing down in our efforts to combat piracy, and I’m sure that is the same with you.
Looking forward, Microsoft needs to continue its leadership in fighting piracy – for its own benefit and for the industry, but most importantly for customers. After closing out 2009 in December with a global Consumer Action Day, we kick off 2010 with our commitment to continue our fight against piracy, especially with Microsoft’s investment in its Genuine Software Initiative, which focuses efforts on three strategic areas:

Source -
Continuing the Fight Against Piracy - Genuine Windows Blog - The Windows Blog

 

[thefabe]

Some interesting comments

 

[grimreaper]

Some interesting comments

i was just gonna say that hehe

 

[GatoSoft]

That sounds to me like an old german fantasy novel... "The Neverending Story" maybe? :huh:
Thanks for the news JMH. Let's see what Microsoft can do this time.

 

[smarteyeball]

Technet Sub = no more personal piracy problems

EULA is something else entirely...

 

[The Apathetic]

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..

 

[tw33k]

Technet Sub = no more personal piracy problems

EULA is something else entirely...

Totally agree...getting a technet sub stopped my evil ways

 

[jimbo45]

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

 

[Tews]

Technet Sub = no more personal piracy problems

EULA is something else entirely...

Ditto SE ..

 

[jimbo45]

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

 

[Tews]

I agree 100% Jim! a good number of ppl have been and continue to be priced out of the market altogether. More are going the FOSS route and will continue to do so...I hope that Redmond will address this issue, and just maybe the pirating problem will be significantly reduced...

 

[HJA]

a good number of ppl have been and continue to be priced out of the market altogether. More are going the FOSS route and will continue to do so...I hope that Redmond will address this issue, and just maybe the pirating problem will be significantly reduced...

Agreed! I was laid off in Feb 09 and was recalled 2 months ago. In that time I went back to school to get A+ in computers(still there!!). As a "student" I received the discount from MS. (Win7 & Office 2007). I built a new PC for class but almost $800+ for MS software was out of the question. Win7 is the first OS I can truly say I have had few problems with. Other than that MS (and others) want way too much for their software. I also use Adobe (PSCS4, LR2, PreEle) and after the first $$ shock upgrades aren't too bad. Sticker shock is too common in this industry, particularly after the economy tanked. I don't see software mfgrs lowering their prices though.

Just my opinion

 

[grimreaper]

Sticker shock is too common in this industry, particularly after the economy tanked. I don't see software mfgrs lowering their prices though.

Just my opinion

Is it possible that manufacturers, when releasing the finished product to the general public, these "marked up prices" also include piracy costs?
So basically you and I are paying for their product plus the cost of loss due to piracy??
If that's the case, that is awful.
You would think with the state of our economy still not at full tilt, these companies would lower their prices by at least a min 10% (20% would be nice) to reflect the current market conditions.:huh:
Why can't these companies see the light and lower the prices?
It's a win-win situation for everyone; low prices=$$ for the companies+happy customers=less piracy? makes sense? no?

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there

Since the main revenue stream on OS'es etc is now an OLD business model and not likely to deliver long term growth why doesn't MS go down the same route that people like IBM (not 100% but largely), or Red hat have done.

1) Make Windows and Office OPEN SOURCE - this will kill piracy STONE DEAD at a stroke and probably improve both Office and W7 no end.

2) Become a SERVICE organisation.

The future in any case is "The Cloud" so "Classic OS'es" will be a dying Breed.

We can enjoy W7 while its current but these type of OS'es are only a transition to an "Always on " Internet type of connection that work basically from a Browser on any type of hardware.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[AvatarOfTheShip]

Didn't Wild Bill Balmer describe Linux as a 'cancer' once?

 

[pparks1]

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".

I looked at the new version of office, and except for the fact that 64bit is available and Outlook has the ribbon bar...I've yet to see anything really outstanding which would persuade me to want to use the new version of Office.

 

[seekermeister]

jimbo45,

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).

I won't say that I have never used pirated software, but that time is now behind me. When I did, it was not an OS, but other third party software, not that that made it any better. When I first started using computers, it seemed that this practice was so commonplace, that I didn't really question it much. However, there has never been a good excuse for pirating an OS, regardless of price, because there are quite good ones available for free (Linux). Yes, they are more difficult to learn, and they do have handicaps...especially for gamers, but a game is not worth becoming a thief for.

While I support the concept of defending against piracy, I do not support anything that infringes on the rights and privacy of legal software users...DRM (dead at last). I realize that there is no middle ground which is totally free of any abuse to legal software users, but I fear that consideration for paying customers is a thing of the past. I do know that theft is not something that will ever be totally eliminated by any law or procedure. If it could, we would have a lot more space in our prisons. How long would WalMart remain in business, if they kept a squad of police at their front door, frisking each customer as they left? To a degree, they wisely consider theft an unavoidable part of doing business, and make the losses a write off on their taxes. I realize that it would be difficult to quantify intangible thefts in the same fashion, and this is part of the reason that prices remain high.

 

[valtonray]

generally speaking lowering the cost of software will not have a substantial impact on how frequently that software will be pirated. people pirate $13 cd's and television shows that could just as easily be watched on hulu for free. if you don't want to pay for your software go open source, microsoft is a business, their purpose is to create a profit. they shouldn't have to change the way they generate that profit so that someone gets their content for free. now i admit i've "pirated" lots of software, especially pc games and software, not because i have a problem with paying for them but because i like to know how they will run on my system, or to test before i commit to buying. the real issue isn't that the companies charge to much for the products we want, thats just our justification for stealing it.

 

[seekermeister]

I agree, stealing will never be eliminated, regardless of what measures are taken. It's just the nature of people. The more hurdles that the software industry creates, the more determination the pirates acquire. Not just to save money, but for the ego trip of beating the system. I don't believe that I have the solution, but a couple of things that would help is if the software industry had standards that insured that all software would work as it should, and to find other means of profiting from their products other than direct sales...perhaps something like developers in the Open Source freeware products do.

 

[valtonray]

one thing to keep in mind though is that open source software is developed largely by volunteers, companies like microsoft and adobe have to pay their developers. now windows is far from perfect but it is nice knowing that i can pretty much guarantee that all of my reasonably up to date hardware is going to work with minimal complications, while i've seen netbooks that shipped with ubuntu go crazy and lose some functionality after an update. sure windows users have plenty of problems too after all we aren't apple with a very limited amount of hardware configurations, but it's far easier to deal with most windows issues than it is to keep linux running smoothly. thats gotta be worth a few dollars.