[A2k] Mircosoft exec: if you must pirate, use counterfeit Windows

[Michelle Childs]

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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/03/13/ms_piracy_benefits/
If you must pirate, use counterfeit Windows
MS exec gets pragmatic about piracy
By John Leyden =E2=86=92 More by this author
Published Tuesday 13th March 2007 13:14 GMT

A senior Microsoft exec has admitted that some software piracy
actually ends up benefiting the technology giant because it leads to
purchases of other software packages.

In this way, some software pirates who might otherwise never try
Microsoft products become paying customers, according to Microsoft
business group president Jeff Raikes.

"If they're going to pirate somebody, we want it to be us rather than
somebody else," Raikes told delegates at last week's Morgan Stanley
Technology conference in San Francisco, Information Week reports.

Raikes' stance seems at odds with the Microsoft's recent aggressive
anti-piracy push, via its controversial Windows Genuine Advantage
Programme, which resulted in many instances where legitimate users
were identified as using "dodgy" software. And that's to say nothing
of the millions Microsoft spends every year on other anti-piracy
initiatives.

Rather than saying that piracy isn't a problem per-se, Raikes reckons
that between 20 and 25 per cent of US software is pirated, he argues
pragmatically that it can have benefits over the long-run. "We
understand that in the long run the fundamental asset is the
installed base of people who are using our products," Raikes said.
"What you hope to do over time is convert them to licensing the
software," he said.

Although Microsoft has no intentions of scaling down (much less
abandoning) its effort to chase software counterfeiters, Raikes
argues that it's against its interests to push illegitimate users so
hard that they wind up using alternative products. "You want to push
towards getting legal licensing, but you don't want to push so hard
that you lose the asset that's most fundamental in the business,"
Raikes said, adding that Microsoft is developing "pay-as-you-go"
software pricing models in a bid to encourage low-income people in
emerging countries to use its technology.

Raikes' intervention provides a welcome perspective on the software
piracy debate which has for a long time been dominated by the
simplistic argument, wheeled out ad nauseum by industry groups such
as the Business Software Alliance, that a copy of pirated software is
equivalent to a lost sale. =C2=AE




Michelle Childs
michelle.childs@cptech.org