Microsoft Against Free Software... But In Favor Of Paying Nations To Use Its Software?

from the something-doesn't-seem-right dept

Mon, Nov 3rd 2008 4:48pm — Mike Masnick

With more and more countries aggressively moving to embrace free and open source software, it appears that Microsoft is using its own money to its advantage, such as with this agreement to hand over $60 million to South Korea to get it to use its software, rather than the alternatives. While it may seem silly when you take a step back and look at the situation, it does show some of the mixed up incentives related to software. Individuals and organizations can simply embrace free software, or Microsoft can pay out $60 million towards various projects now, knowing that it will pressure the South Korean gov't and firms into spending a lot more than that on its software. At some point, people will begin to realize this is just a bad deal. The programs Microsoft invests in make out well, as do some government officials, but everyone else ends up worse off.

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: payments, software, south korea
Companies: microsoft

23 Comments

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

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

ehrichweiss, 3 Nov 2008 @ 5:38pm

they still missed...
I wonder how long till Microsoft realizes that people actually still use free alternatives ON their platform as well. OpenOffice, VLC Media Player, Pidgin, Firefox, Thunderbird, etc. are all widely used and excellent alternatives to any for-pay "solutions" that M$ might have.

I personally have been using Linux as my primary operating system on my laptop for about 4 months now(been over 4 years on ALL of my servers) and haven't really missed anything made by Microsoft. I might boot into XP once a week at most.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Simon, 3 Nov 2008 @ 5:55pm

Re: they still missed...
It always make me laugh that Media Player is 'protected' by Windows Genuine Advantage. When ever I double click on a file and Media Player brings up the splash screen telling I need to validate my copy before I can use it, it's just a reminder that I need to assign that file type to VLC.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
some old guy, 3 Nov 2008 @ 6:14pm

Re: Re: they still missed...
WGA is spyware, and should never be installed.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Ian Rae, 3 Nov 2008 @ 6:50pm

bribery?
Doesn't this basically amount to bribing them to use Microsoft software dumped at no charge? This doesn't seem possible.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 3 Nov 2008 @ 6:51pm

Cheaper than free
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Six Pack, 3 Nov 2008 @ 6:54pm

I've heard of region codes, but this is just silly.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 3 Nov 2008 @ 7:08pm

The end result is that...
"I'm a PC and I subsidize South Korean licensing costs."
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Nick, 3 Nov 2008 @ 7:15pm

Re: The end result is that...
"I'm a PC and you need to take out your checkbook and purchase my Professional Services to install that free software."
[ link to this | view in thread ]
No Six Pack, 3 Nov 2008 @ 8:35pm

I'm a PC
PC is now synonymous with Windows ... excuse me, I'm going to puke.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
NullOp, 3 Nov 2008 @ 9:02pm

Hey!
I'll be happy to take a copy of MS MapPoint! I can put it to very good use!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Alex, 3 Nov 2008 @ 9:04pm

Re: bribery?
Bribe before you buy :)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Paul`, 3 Nov 2008 @ 9:06pm

Re: they still missed...
Who pays for IE, WMP, Outlook ect? They come for free.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Bernard Swiss, 3 Nov 2008 @ 10:11pm

Re: they still missed...
"Who pays for IE, WMP, Outlook ect? They come for free."

They (IE, WMP, Outlook, etc) no more come for free than do the wheels on your car.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Suely, 4 Nov 2008 @ 6:10am

Re: Re: they still missed...
They (IE, WMP, Outlook, etc) no more come for free than do the wheels on your car.

They seem to come for free with Linux. Plus OSX comes with some real worthwhile applications that are, well, you know, worthwhile.

Oh well.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Nov 2008 @ 6:16am

What about the EU
Microsoft better save some of that money . . . the EU wants a big cut!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Dave, 4 Nov 2008 @ 6:22am

Why bother?
In S. Korea, Windows penetration is almost absolute as the encryption protocol for Internet banking there (required by law) is Windows-only. No Linux or Mac version exists so you must use IE under windows (not even wine works).

Why would they need to pay them $60M unless they'd started porting the encryption protocol?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 4 Nov 2008 @ 8:53am

Unfortunately wast majority of average Joes (or plumber Joe :) ) still use Microsoft and are unaware of free alternatives. Microsoft has a succesfull business model and will not start loosing money any time soon.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
TDR, 4 Nov 2008 @ 9:12am

You know your software's bad when you have to pay somebody to use it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Lawrence D'Oliveiro, 4 Nov 2008 @ 4:50pm

Market Forces In Action
Sure, Microsoft can keep paying others to keep using its software ... until the money runs out. What then?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Dennis Byron, 5 Nov 2008 @ 6:04am

Microsoft and South Korea
Isn't this just a payoff to settle the Korean equivalent of the EU anti-trust case? Actually the U.S. version more or less got settled the same way. Microsoft gave schools millions of dollars worth of free software locking another generation into its products. A great marketing coup.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 6 Nov 2008 @ 5:16pm

Re: Re: Re: they still missed...
They seem to come for free with Linux.
IE, WMP, and Outlook come free with Linux? You seem to be hallucinating.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 6 Nov 2008 @ 5:20pm

Sure, Microsoft can keep paying others to keep using its software ... until the money runs out. What then?
Then they squeeze US citizens for more.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Nancy, 3 Apr 2009 @ 2:36pm

FREE IS GOOD!!!
I have been using free software for a while now and It has not hurt my business. If I need a software, I go to http://www.grateware.com and use that search engine to find it. It only finds free software. Pretty cool, and it has saved me thousands.
[ link to this | view in thread ]