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Microsoft takes to Zen against Piracy

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CIOL Bureau
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NEW DELHI: If at all we could measure corporate tempers, then perhaps Adobe would have shot the mercury off the scales, while Microsoft would pull it down.

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Remember the days when Adobe threatened to pull out of India, due to rampant piracy in the country? Adobe’s threat came at a time when Nasscom along with BSA (Business Software Alliance) increased crackdowns on software pirates. Nasscom also brought an elephant from some place to trample on a huge cache of CDs and floppies, full of pirated software.

When all tempers are down and the pachyderm is cooling its heels somewhere, Microsoft has silently unveiled its fight against piracy. In a country where estimates say that nearly 70 per cent of the packaged software market is ruled over by piracy, Microsoft is taking its time to prepare for what can be a long and hard fight.

The first shot from Microsoft has been "What’s a PC without an Original OS" campaign primarily in the print media. The ad shows a PC wrapped in polythene and a trash can next to it. The company spokesperson confirms that no hardware OEM has objected to this ad yet. There’s more to follow, says the spokesperson.

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Now, Microsoft wants to go step-by-step in educating the computer user by saying that "software costs." It is a different matter that Sun Microsystems has not persisted with its story of "why pay for software when its available for free," and instead took its Star Office paid.

If Linux wasn’t around, perhaps Microsoft could have taken an aggressive posture. However, going soft has its advantages. Some Microsoft dealers go around scouting for companies using unlicensed versions of Windows, MS Office and other software and goad them to buy legal versions or risk a Nasscom raid. An Adobe stomping out in anger, cannot avail of such ingenious solutions.

Linux may have come in as a blip in Microsoft’s sales radar, but it is not likely to make an impact on its anti-piracy drive. Once, people realize that they have to pay a Linux distributor to avail of a complete installation, CD plus a user manual and pay for the annual service as well, then Microsoft’s fee may appear more appealing. The only trade-offs are some OS crashes and a few virus attacks now and then. But then one cannot twiddle fingers and wait for a nerd to come and fix the Linux desktop.

After all, the king of software invaded markets riding on the pirated versions of its Neanderthal era, Disk Operating System (MS DOS), which mesmerized hordes of early Indian software professionals into becoming strong MS converts.

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