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About LinkBacksRead more.Windows Genuine Advantage is out, but Windows Activation Technologies is in and promises to protect Microsoft's intellectual property.
Read more.Windows Genuine Advantage is out, but Windows Activation Technologies is in and promises to protect Microsoft's intellectual property.
Let me present the real solution to this piracy problem:Microsoft also revealed that "up to a third of customers worldwide may be running counterfeit copies of Windows,"
Reduce the cost of windows by almost one third; which would probably get those running pirated windows to actually buy a legitimate version and ditch the anti-piracy schemes giving many a headache not to mention the investments that has to go into the brand to regain what the countermeasures caused.
If you ask me I'd say price is what causes so many to "pirate" music and movies. And I'd dare to say price is also responsible for windows piracy. I'm no expert though.
With windows, there are a large number of people with pirate copies that don't know they aren't genuine. They probabyl paid full price for their "license", so it isn't just a case of not wanting to pay for it.
I've started to hear that often recently and I'm not sure if it's the effects of Microsoft campaigns or if it's actually a big problem. I have no numbers to go on here but I do wonder how many people buy their computers from small shops vs building them selves vs buying from likes of hp and dell.Originally Posted by Funkstar
The ratio local shops or self built vs ala dell has to be insignificant. At least in most developed countries.
You also have poeple self building and buying what they think is a genuine copy, but is just a copy (some of th fakes coming out of the far east are very very good). Then there are people taking their PC into stores to get upgraded from XP to Vista or soon Windows 7, are they going to get a real install?
You are right though, I don't know what the numbers are like either. I suspect it isn't as big a deal as it used to be, but it is still there.
The price of PC games in real terms is lower than the 90s. The piracy of PC games is much higher than in the 90s, even for DRM-free games.
The availability of DRM free, cheap music to download also did not reduce piracy, rather it increased it.
So no, price isn't a significant factor in piracy. In most cases if someone wants to pirate software they'll do it anyway, whether it costs £30 or £3.
I think it's not so much the buying at local shops as buying second-hand / through friends. I've bought a couple of PCs / laptops from those "quick cash" type shops and they just seem to bash whatever OS they've got lying around onto them. That's going to happen more and more in an economic turn-down as well - more and more stuff will go through second-hand and buy-for-cash shops. My one big hope for Windows 7 was a sensible price structure, but I'm not holding my breath...
I have to agree that one of the main causes for deliberate Windows piracy is price. If you're buying a PC second hand a new Windows license could cost almost as much as you're paying for the computer! Even if you're building yourself it can still take up a huge proportion of your budget: in a sensible HTPC build the Windows license is likely to be the biggest single expense by some distance. I see no good reason, given the volume they're always going to shift, for Windows Basic to cost much more than £20. I believe that a lot of major OEMs get their Windows licenses for about that price anyway. At that price I wouldn't even think before adding it to a new build - but when you're looking at £60 to £70, that's when you start wondering if you'd be better off with Linux, or if you know a mate who has a friend whose company has a volumne license you could "borrow". Or, indeed, whether you can run the last Release Candidate and just keep setting your computer's clock back every few months! I'm not trying to say that lowering the price of Windows would eliminate piracy entirely mind you - there are some people out there who believe they should never have to pay for anything, and will always pirate software if they can - but I suspect it would reduce the baseline significantly...
It won't stop them. Besides Microsoft have already come out and stated that pirated copies will still receive crictical updates.
I assume its because they dont want pirated versions of windows to become part of botnets.
all the anti piracy stufff really annoys me since I pay for software,games,dvd's music etc.
like the advert thing that says piracy is a crime dont steal dvd's blah blah blah. i paid for it so i shouldnt have to watch that. I cant even skip it ffs!
same goes for games that require you to stick the game in the drive to play the game for example the sims.
I hate that every so often microsoft check to see if its still legit!
I agree that somepeople dont relise they are running a pirated version of windows. there are some people who wouldnt buy windows no matter how much it costs.
even thou microsoft cant admit it they would rather people use pirated versions of windows rather than using an alternate OS such as linux.
Last edited by lodore; 11-05-2009 at 02:19 PM.
Reducing the price by half would do for most people using illegal copies.
Pricing of Windows probably needs to be revamped. Currently, you can get a copy of OS X Leopard for less than anything but Vista home basic. And you really can't compare the functionality of these two.
Nope. If they reduced the cost to £1 there would still be a significant amount of people who would pirate it. What Kalniel says is absolutely spot on.
The only way that Microsoft are going to stop people pirating Windows in my opinion is to make them realise that a copy of Windows is every bit as vital a part in their PC as the CPU, GPU, RAM and the rest of the hardware. Why do people complain about spending £70 on an OS (because let's face it - all that hardware is just a bloody expensive paperweight without an OS) when they'll happily spend twice that on the GPU, and again on the CPU?
True OS X Leopard can't compete with right click... its just not possible.
I don't see OS X working on the majority of regular PC's anyway so comparing a brand which is not compatible with a large range of PC components is a bit silly since it literally can't do the job Windows does in many scenarios.
Linux being able to work on anything now is a far better comparison. It is also in my opinion a better OS than Leopard from Mac. If I never played games I'd be using Linux right now but since all my games are not compatible with Linux I am forced to use Windows.
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The reason pirated software exists is because companies charge too much for what they offer, the value of the proposition they put forward is ridiculous and thus people find a way around that. As soon as companies stop trying to pull people's pants down with their prices they'll find customers will be more willing to co-operate with them. Companies should be serving their customers not themselves, if they take care of their customers their customers will take care of them. Unfortunately all that most companies are interested in is money so the customers get the short end of the stick and thus they seek alternatives.
I agree that lowering the prices won't stop piracy. It probably won't even slow it down all that much, but it would get things moving a bit faster too.
At a time when their main market - the corporate sector - aren't exactly going to be leaping from XP to 7, MS need to restructure their pricing model and get far more aggressive and accessible. The same applies to the consumer market, though to less of an extent.
Piracy will still exist. If MS simply stop pirates using Windows (and they certainly could on 99% of systems), then pirates will just move to another system, installing Linux on clients PCs, or moving to OSX purely out of spite. That's the last thing MS want... they need people on the Windows platform.
I hear there is a new version to WAT its called,
total windows activation technology
To combat this MS should do an ad stating 99% of PC's bought on Ebay have dodgy windows on them, once people see this on tv the ones not savvy will realise the mistake they have made.
It really bugs me seeing all these dodgy PC's listed on Ebay
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