On May 21, 9:00 pm, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> Well, well, well... he's an interesting development.
>
> PC resellers strike against Microsoft in India
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Stop harassment over piracy or we move to Linux...
> |
> | [...]
> |
> | "We have been approached by dealers in other states who are also
> | being harassed by Microsoft," Randeri said. "If Microsoft does
> | not cooperate, we will tell our dealers to migrate to Linux."
> `----
>
> http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/it-business/supplier-relati...
I feel about software piracy about the same way I feel about music
piracy. While I believe the law should be respected and obeyed, I
shed few tears for the music industry, which has obviously been fixing
prices on CDs for many years. Too bad their sales have fallen by 50%
in recent years. As for Microsoft, they have certainly benefitted
from piracy in the past in certain ways, such as getting entire
nations hooked on their proprietary ways of doing things. I'm sure
they would have preferred to have been paid for all the pirated
software in China and elsewhere, but there was the consolation of the
lock-in on entire nations, that could be exploited in the future when
new versions of piracy-proof software (Vista) should come on line.
Now that that is happening, Linux has become an even more appealing
alternative, especially in certain countries. For many users (eg the
ones in India that have some shop install pirated Windows for them),
actually paying for Windows may be impossible, hence
Linux will have to be the choice. Of course, maybe Vista will be no
more piracy-proof than XP was, but certainly MS has gone to a lot of
effort to frustrate piracy in Vista (WGA, UAC, etc).
Compliance with the law involves a number of factors, of which fear of
punishment is only one, probably not the major one at that. More
important is respect for the law, which has probably taken a beating
from the piracy culture that has emerged over music and software.
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