Re: pirated windows


darkrats wrote:

Almost every consumer has Windows already installed on their computer by the retailer, so I would guess that the only true "pirates" are found among those who build their own systems, from parts. It's been my experience that other folks usually run a "pirated" copy of Windows because earlier versions (like XP) are no longer distributed by MS (and the consumer doesn't want Vista), or they like to do a lot of clean installs, and get fed up with the whole activation/validation process.

Yes, I know that the process is "simple" and "quick", but many consumers continue to be ticked off with the concept that they have to get MS's permission to use something they believe they've alread paid up front for. If you're interested, you might do a little research into the whole "licencing concept", and how it started way back when only big corporations were using computers. I think when computers became available to individuals, software makers should have re-thought this. The idea that handing over 400 dollars only entitles you to "use" the software, not "own" the software, is lost on most consumers. When they go out and buy a car, for example, they don't pay big bucks just to use it, while the carmaker retains ownership of it. They buy the car.

I'm alway wondering if MS will eventually remove post that address the piracy issue from their newsgroups. We'll see.



It's a fallacy to believe that Microsoft never thought of profiting
from the consumer. Its entire licensing philosophy is based on having
the retail consumer pay the full price for its products. And this all
started with Microsoft persuading computer builders to insert MS-DOS
as the operating system for their products and then the Office apps,
and so on. Both the builders and major corporations paid essentially
low dollar after heavy discounting. Whilst Microsoft (and others) were
propagating their products, they also turned a blind eye to "piracy",
just to increase the number of users. Well, the era of rapid growth
in the computer business has just reached steady-state and it's time
to gather in the money.

And not to quibble on the legal aspects, but it is impossible to "own"
even a share of a copyright. And software is not a tangible product;
it cannot be bought, per se, but licensed for use and what is bought
is the cdrom or floppy diskettes on which it comes. The only people
who might have a claim to ownership would be Microsoft's preferred
stockholders.
.

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