Advice For Google's VC Arm: Don't Be Boring

If Everyone's Using Your Pirated Software, Are You Still A Monopolist?

from the questions-questions-questions dept

Tue, Aug 5th 2008 3:44pm — Mike Masnick

Apparently there's a new antitrust law in China that has local software companies scrambling to file suit against Microsoft for violating the law. However, Business Week has a rather pertinent question: if the vast majority of the Microsoft software in use in China is of the "pirated" variety, can Microsoft actually be held responsible for antitrust violations? After all, it's not directly responsible for that "monopoly" in the first place.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: antitrust, china, piracy
Companies: microsoft

18 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 5 Aug 2008 @ 4:07pm

wat?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 5 Aug 2008 @ 4:42pm

yes... yes it can... next useless newspost please.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
John Duncan Yoyo, 5 Aug 2008 @ 4:43pm

Ok they are suing M$ for being ubiquitous through rampant piracy and some sales.

I guess this kinda makes sense if you are trying to sell your own operating system or web browser and the competition is as good as giving their wares away to achieve a kinda of market domination. They got sued by the EU for something like that.

I suspect that the Chinese government will make this issue go away.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Darksurf, 5 Aug 2008 @ 5:01pm

LOL
HA ha ha ha ha! The screwer has now become the screwed!
God, how I longed for this day!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike42 (profile), 5 Aug 2008 @ 5:16pm

Silly
So Microsoft will be forced to stop doing business in a country where they're not doing business, just having their software pirated? Man, Microsoft sure is screwed. I guess they'll just have to limit their business to paying customers (the horror!)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
bobbknight, 5 Aug 2008 @ 5:24pm

Oh Riely ?
LOL, it seems the Cowards Anonymous, are without clue.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 5 Aug 2008 @ 5:56pm

moronic.

looks like China is getting their own little pool of scumbags (aka attorneys) ready to litigate at the drop of a hat.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Overcast, 5 Aug 2008 @ 6:27pm

Umm, just because many people are too stupid to use Linux, doesn't mean Microsoft has a Monopoly.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mr Stereotyper, 5 Aug 2008 @ 6:34pm

WHAT??
According to you:
All chinese men have small penises
All chinese are bad drivers.
.
.

and all chinese use pirated software.

Grow up dude!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
WTH, 5 Aug 2008 @ 6:40pm

What the heck
What's sad is the article has "local software companies scrambling to file suit against Microsoft for violating the law"

At least we know know that the US are not the only ones that are sue happy.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Mike (profile), 5 Aug 2008 @ 7:05pm

Re: WHAT??
Um. There's a huge difference between a factual statement, noting that much of the software in use in China is pirated, and making a stereotype about "all" of anything.

I made no stereotyped comment about the Chinese. I merely pointed out that *if* so much software in China is pirated, as is established fact (not all, but much of it), then does that raise questions about the antitrust claim.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Freedom, 5 Aug 2008 @ 8:09pm

Pirated Software = China
Sorry, but I think any one in China really buys ANY software.

In the embroidery world, the #1 application used by the majority of the embroidery shops in China has only one sale to someone in China. That's right, the #1 app, has literally one legit sale to that part of world.

Freedom
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Paul`, 5 Aug 2008 @ 9:07pm

Re: WHAT??
It's a statistical fact, not a stereotype.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
reality, 5 Aug 2008 @ 9:14pm

Depends only on Chinese law
It depends only on Chinese law, and more importantly how that law is interpreted. Legal opinions by us Americans is irrelevant.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
cram, 5 Aug 2008 @ 9:21pm

lost sale
Does all of that piracy count as lost sales, or is it just a pointer to MS that they should start selling something else in China?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
zcat, 5 Aug 2008 @ 11:14pm

"dumping"
It's an interesting situation to be sure. When Microsoft sells their software hugely below cost to maintain a monopoly position, that's likely to be seen as illegal 'dumping'. But there's nothing illegal about having copy protection that sucks.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Tim, 8 Aug 2008 @ 9:01am

Actually...
Maybe the flip-side of restrictive license models is that, having *tried* to enforce a paying system, they should be responsible for breaches of the algorithms used too?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
SkumBag, 19 Sep 2008 @ 8:18am

I just want to know where to get some
Quit screwing around; where can I get this pirated chinese software.
[ link to this | view in thread ]