China is perhaps the single biggest country in terms of distributing pirated software and that certainly includes selling PCs with unlicensed copies of Windows. Today, Microsoft stated that 16 resellers of PCs in China were selling computers to customers with pirated copies of their OS.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft vice president Nick Psyhogeos made the accusations during a media briefing in China earlier today. He added that if private discussions with the PC resellers fail to stop them from offering pirated Windows PCs, Microsoft would take legal action against them.
In early 2011, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer met with United States president Barack Obama and Chinese president Hu Jintao to discuss Windows piracy in China, claiming that just one out of 10 copies of Windows in that country was officially licensed. At the press briefing today, Psyhogeos said that Microsoft recently bought a number of PCs with pirated versions of Windows and found that 91 percent of them had some kind of malware installed.
While Psyhogeos added that the recently launched Windows 8 would be tougher to pirate than previous versions of the OS, he added, " ... we are aware though that software pirates are smart, and they have a way to react and respond to any technological advancement we might introduce."
Source: Wall Street Journal
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