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

from the questions-questions-questions dept

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.
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Filed Under: antitrust, china, piracy
Companies: microsoft


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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Aug 2008 @ 4:07pm

    wat?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 5 Aug 2008 @ 4:42pm

    yes... yes it can... next useless newspost please.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    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 ]

  4. identicon
    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 ]

  5. icon
    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 ]

  6. identicon
    bobbknight, 5 Aug 2008 @ 5:24pm

    Oh Riely ?

    LOL, it seems the Cowards Anonymous, are without clue.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. identicon
    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 ]

  8. identicon
    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 ]

  9. identicon
    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 ]

  10. identicon
    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 ]

  11. icon
    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 ]

  12. identicon
    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 ]

  13. identicon
    Paul`, 5 Aug 2008 @ 9:07pm

    Re: WHAT??

    It's a statistical fact, not a stereotype.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. identicon
    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 ]

  15. identicon
    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 ]

  16. identicon
    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 ]

  17. identicon
    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 ]

  18. identicon
    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 ]


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