http://www.informationweek.com/windo...leID=198000211
"said a certain amount of software piracy actually helps Microsoft because it can lead to purchases by individuals who otherwise might never have been exposed to the company's products."
http://www.informationweek.com/windo...leID=198000211
"said a certain amount of software piracy actually helps Microsoft because it can lead to purchases by individuals who otherwise might never have been exposed to the company's products."
*goes out to get an illegal version of Vista*
Kidding, If i ever get Vista it will be through legal means
*nods* if the choice is between pirating MS software and buying a rivals cheaper product then of course MS win by piracy. Piracy helps stop rivals, thus reduces competition thus raises prices and lowers product 'goodness' :p
chuckles... MS ohh MS...
This idea has been around for some time - however, more recently, tougher anti-piracy measures seem to have been introduced.
Piracy is an excellent tool for building up market share, and maintaining it, as users become accustomed to using the specific products in question. A combination of very high market share, unique (patented?) interface designs and closed file formats can create a really successful monopoly.
And, I suppose, once such a company feels secure that there is no effective competition for its products, with little risk of that market share being eroded, it's free to build up the pressure on software pirates. To me, things like Genuine Advantage programmes and product activation are a demonstration of this.
They have been in trouble in parts of India for this. Seems they turned a blind eye to indian companies and coucils using pirated software, almost even encouraged it, and now they are threatening to take them to court unless they buy it now. Its like marketing akin to the powdered babymilk suppliers in africa.
Its true though, and as Hexxeh has said a few times (or at least I think it was him) Piracy strengthens Microsofts stranglehold on the market. Who's going to try GNU licensed programs if they can get Microsoft products for free :(
Agreed.Quote:
Originally Posted by SHare
Or less favourably, marketing akin to heroin pushers.
Yep, that's good old MS for ya.
Its a well know fact that MS have done this since the days of 3.1. Its all about market share. They would rather have everyone using windows even if its illegal copies, rather than another companies product. Part of the reason it been the dominant desktop OS for so many years. I dont know anyone who had a legit copy of 3.1 unless it came with the PC.
Bit like the drug dealer that allows you to have a bit for free to get you hooked!
as long as everyone is comfortable using windows (at home), then they can assume that most companies will be using windows too (because it takes a massive slice from the market share)
any companies using illegal copies need their butts kicked though!
I was going to say that.Quote:
Originally Posted by SteveC
Although, truth be told I wish there really were people queuing up to give me free drugs when I was younger...:lol:
This is an odd thing coming from a microsoft exec. Though even with all the pirated versions of their software they still make huge profits so its not exactly crippling them.
This has been a popular MS philosophy for years. I dont think I ever used a legal version of 95/98 even my school had pirated versions.
End of the day, it's just the age old tactic of getting everyone hooked then upping the price.
There's drugs, and then there's heroin! That one's as addictive as the nicotine in cigarettes.Quote:
Originally Posted by JPreston
The day microsoft can replicate that in software, we're all screwed.
Though I think that's what DirectX and the games lock-in might be all about (games with the potential to be quite addictive).
By reducing the cost of MS OS's, even halving the price would solve a fair amount of piracy, as most peeps would "probably" buy 2 copies (more depending on how many PC's) to use on seperate PC's legitimately, IMO.
.....~awakes from dreamworld~ :undecided
Yeah but like they said, only about 25% of instances are pirate, and the amount they would need to cut the price to encourage only some of those back would harm profits more than just leaving them to it.
Better to milk those sucker enough to pay than offer a fairly priced product to all.
Yeah think that is dreaming :p Reducing the cost won't affect piracy. There are already cheaper alternatives out there but people would rather pirate than buy something cheaper. Hence killing off those cheaper products and leaving MS with a monopoly ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Vowo
It's all irrelevant to MS on the whole - they probably sell most consumer copies of their OS' via OEMs and so the cost is hidden from the user in any case. Joe buys PC, Joe get's Windows.Quote:
Originally Posted by kalniel
This is particularly important in view of the current popularity of Ubuntu. If it's a choice between switching to Linux or pirating Vista, it's obvious which Microsoft would prefer. I reckon that MS anti-piracy measures are deliberately made fairly easy to break.
To be honest, based on the comments, software developers (or perhaps Microsoft in particular) are best off not to comment about their stance on piracy.
If they had say "We are totally against piracy, and will do everything we can to stop it", people would undoubtedly snicker at the comment ("All software get cracked eventually, so it's just a waste of the millions of £). If they take a more aggressive approach (i.e. lawsuits), then we only need to take a look at the reputation of RIAA/MPAA (don't get me wrong, I am not a fan of their approach). Here we have someone who is looking at the 'bright side' of piracy, and people think it is part of a masterplan for Microsoft's to monopolise the software world.
Personally, I think that piracy is not the sort of thing that are affected by what exec say anyway. I do not see people who weren't going to pirate MS products start after that comment. There may be some strategic appeal to it, but I wonder if they would really prefer 25% pirates vs 12.5% pirates + 12.5% moving to Linux.
OS is just a platform, it's the softwares on Windows that are making money for MS. As long as people are using Windows, no matter pirated or not, they have to use MS compatible softwares as well. That's always the strategy of MS, just like the xBox, the hardware is not the focus, it's always the softwares on the platform.