Microsoft Celebrating Antipiracy Day
from the not-as-much-fun dept
It's been just over a month since the International Talk Like A Pirate Day, and yet, that's all I can think about when I hear Microsoft announce that today it's celebrating "antipiracy day", during which it will try to highlight everything the company is doing to combat unauthorized file sharing. Odd, then, that this would be the same company that in the past has admitted that it greatly benefits from piracy of its own products, in establishing worldwide standards and in competing against open source alternatives. The company, apparently, is a bit conflicted. In the meantime, anyone have tips on "talking like an antipirate?" I'm guessing it will include such strawman phrases as "it's just like stealing a physical product!," "all content creation would stop," and "content creators deserve to make money!"
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Filed Under: antipiracy, piracy
Companies: microsoft
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Ha
Seems like an overall gain, even if not monetarily.
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"Only 2% of our customers care about the effects of DRM."
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Re:
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Meh.
ThePirateBay is having a bit of fun with this, which I'm sure MS appreciates.
I'd just encourage people to delete any copy of Windows/Office/etc. But then, I do that anyways.
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Re: Meh.
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Pirates vs Ninjas
However, anyone who has ever had the opportunity to hear a ninja died a quick and painless death before they were able to tell anyone what the ninja sounded like.
so... hrmm.
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Re: Pirates vs Ninjas
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Re: Pirates vs Ninjas
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...while everyone else "pirates" their products.
Seriously, do Microsoft try reducing the ridiculous prices of their products that lock out many people in the developing world who want to use them (foolish by my reckoning, but still)? Do they allow people to continue to buy the products they want (XP, Office 2k3) instead of forcing an "upgrade"? Do they offer some kind of real incentive for people to use the legitimate copy instead of the pirated version, or even make the legit version as valuable (e.g. allowing Vista users to change the interface language on Home editions)?
No, they run with a cheap marketing gimmick pointing out things people already know. This is the most telling remark from the article:
""We continue to see much more counterfeit Windows XP," said Finn, who actually says the company is predicting a rise in XP pirating as the last legitimate copies of the OS wind their way off retail shelves."
Then why the f**k are you discontinuing it? If people want XP and you know they'll not buy Vista instead, then why stop selling it? Why not accept that Vista has been a horrible failure and continue to offer XP until Windows 7 is available, and continue to collect the money that people *want to continue to pay you*?
*sigh*
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M$'s Sucidial Campaign
So let encourage M$ to encourage government to enforce draconian measures against pirates. This will surely lead to M$'s demise!
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Ineffective
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Maybe I am looking in the wrong places, but I have yet to find any MS official stating that pirating "greatly" benefits the company.
Yes, I believe MS applications are in large measure overpriced (except for those qualifying for academic discounts). However, apparently I fall into a small group that shops around for more reasonably priced alternatives in lieu of frequenting places like TPB.
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Re: MS benefitting from piracy
Try looking in the right places.
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Re: Re: MS benefitting from piracy
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celebrate
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Oh really?
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Activation and DRM continue to boost Apple Sales...
There are two things I remember from being young. 1. Having no money, so copying things for free was fairly big with me. 2. Being stuck on status symbols and willing to pay up for Nike shoes, or the latest HOT/in fashion item.
Assuming my youth is like the current generation, Microsoft literally set the stage for Apple to win. Pirating Microsoft products NOW is a major pain for the average user (where is used to be extremely easy) and Apple obviously has the latest HOT product that they just must have. Without the kids being able to get free copies of Windows Vista, they choose to buy the hot the product over the old boring "your parent's OS" product.
If Microsoft was serious about winning back those under 30, they'd should seriously consider dropping DRM.
Freedom
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Re: Activation and DRM continue to boost Apple Sales...
o I think it is interesting that Apple's number of patents at 2456 compares to Microsoft's 9806 patents as Apple's dollar market share in the U.S. in February of 2008 compares to the PC market, at 25%.
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/08/03/17/apple_snags_14_percent_of_us_based_pc_retail_s ales_in_february.html
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Vista DRM is working
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