Bill Gates isn't too bothered by Piracy...

[Jordan M.]

this is probably true considering i know a cough cough friend and he pirated xp pro and 5 moths later he bought the retail version

[lhnz]

I used to buy lots of software, but now I tend to just pirate.

This is because right now I am at University and cannot afford very much. I did however buy a copy of "Guitar Pro 5" as I liked it far too much and it would be wrong to pirate something that I use so much.

I won't pirate stuff as much when I have a proper job.

[Farstrider]

- (Zirus @ Apr 13 2006, 12:58)

Well that?s just like saying "I'm just going to leave the keys in my car, and my doors unlocked in downtown LA. If someone is going to steal it, they're going to steal it and there?s nothing I can do, so why try?"

Hmmm, yes, and they will get addicted to your car and then buy o:shifty:fty:

......:no::no:

Chimera963 I think that you missed the analogy completely!! Try and think about what Zirus said and then you will get his drift!

My opinion is that I think MS are doing a good job and it can only get better!

[ichi]

Piracy helping MS products to stablish as standards... well, I though that was pretty obvious. The only new part is Gates acknowledging it.

[JiveMasterT]

I try to get legit copies though whatever means I can. Being in school now is a big helper there because the IT departments practically throw it at you since the liscenses are being paid for and not used.

When I get out of school I'll probably buy Vista and all that fun stuff. Right now though I'm hoping it shows up on MSDNAA when it comes out. My biggest gripe is this - I reinstall Windows on a regular basis, and Activation is soooo annoying because it fails on me 99% of the time. I have legal copies sitting on my desk but I don't actually install off them because it's so much easier to install off the corp copy.

Next time I install though I think I'm just going to use my legit copy, go through the phone activation, and take an image of the system...

[madnuke]

I agree phone activation is crap, talking to India every time you reinstall windows is terrible. It only seems you have to ring up after you've installed SP2 on the machine, thats my conclusion anyway.

[Cole]

I agree phone activation is crap, talking to India every time you reinstall windows is terrible. It only seems you have to ring up after you've installed SP2 on the machine, thats my conclusion anyway.

Yep, I hate that. The serial numbers you have with your Windows CD should be unlimited or there should be an option to deactivate other computers if they have internet access. :p

[L3thal Veteran]

Microsoft is the only company out there that can actually benefit off piracy, not that I'm condoning it. Other companies such as Norton, for example, will be affected since there are dozens of other rivals out in the market and they can't be regarded as the "market standard".

[libertas83]

Microsoft is the only company out there that can actually benefit off piracy, not that I'm condoning it. Other companies such as Norton, for example, will be affected since there are dozens of other rivals out in the market and they can't be regarded as the "market standard".

I agree.

I have seen Microsoft use the concept of a family license in another product. I can't remember which one, but I hope they see the value in allowing all computers in a family household to install Vista with one purchase instead of several to be legal.

[TheNay]

Imagine if Windows was not pirateable, which OS would be the primary OS right now you think? I think Linux would be. It's free and legal. I wonder what would've happened if that was the case. It would be interesting. I don't think Microsoft would be where it is now. I know many will beg to diff but after reading that article it makes so much sense. Good job Microsoft. ;)

One thing I disapprove is people who sell pirated versions of software, thats just wrong and so low.

[markwolfe Veteran]

^^^ If Windows suddenly became "unpiratable", I think it would still take a while for Linux to get traction. 9 out of 10 'normal' people probably have never even heard of it!

[TheNay]

^^^ If Windows suddenly became "unpiratable", I think it would still take a while for Linux to get traction. 9 out of 10 'normal' people probably have never even heard of it!

I meant from the start when Windows first came out, not now. Obviously its too late for that to happen ;)

*sorry for not making myself more clear, been up for 29 hours now.. lol*

[SnowRanger13]

They got to do some fighting back. Piracy will always be a problem they can't spend to much time worrying about it.

[jbonello]

If Microsoft sold Windows for, say, $10, it would lose money on every copy because of manufacturing, distribution and support costs.

don't think this could be a problem...In Malta, Microsoft sold Windows XP Professional for just above $8 (Lm3), Office XP for ~$10 (Lm3.50) and Visual Basic Student Edition for $8 because it's a well known fact that Maltese people love to pirate (and hack) stuff. In this way Microsoft reduced piracy of their software to almost 0%. I don't believe that they didn't make any profit from all this...after all it's Microsoft

[ThePitt]

I think Gates is right

[pyehac]

Never thought of it that way.

[Hum]

If I had $50 billion in the bank I wouldn't be bothered by much of anything. ;)

[Achal]

If I had $50 billion in the bank I wouldn't be bothered by much of anything. ;)

where do u live? canada only covers 60000 maximum if it were to get stolen lol :rofl:

[ANova]

Bill gates isn't bothered by piracy? If that is the case than why will the UI be disabled in Vista?

[E t h a n]

Piracy helping MS products to stablish as standards... well, I though that was pretty obvious. The only new part is Gates acknowledging it.

This technique of addicting people in poor countries to Windows through passively allowing piracy to flourish is actually used by MS in the West as well. At least as little as two years ago, you could buy the upgrade version of MS Money and (a) use it on a machine without a prior full version and (b) give it to anyone else who wanted to use it (no activation/no serial). This has long been standard MS policy with regard to Money to help them combat Quicken. It probably still is their policy, and it's no different than the other ways they turn a blind eye to piracy (here they seem actually to be encouraging it) in order to get people "addicted", as Bill Gates says. :rolleyes:

[JiveMasterT]

Bill gates isn't bothered by piracy? If that is the case than why will the UI be disabled in Vista?

Because it encourages people to buy it. The point Gates was trying to make is that a large enough number of people do buy the software and for those, they get nice perks like software and driver updates through microsoft updates and anything else that is distributed from the WGA checking system. This is something that is going to be in your face about the product and in order to appriciate the new system you will have to pay for it.

I think with activation and the ui effects disabled, most people who really want vista will go and buy it... those that don't care about that stuff will just stay with XP.

[markwolfe Veteran]

I think with activation and the ui effects disabled, most people who really want vista will go and buy it...

Or just use the warezed version as a normal PC without those gaudy effects.

Like was pointed out earlier, this isn't any sort of roadblock. A serious attempt to discourage piracy would disable OS features, or the whole OS itself.

[ANova]

Because it encourages people to buy it. The point Gates was trying to make is that a large enough number of people do buy the software and for those, they get nice perks like software and driver updates through microsoft updates and anything else that is distributed from the WGA checking system. This is something that is going to be in your face about the product and in order to appriciate the new system you will have to pay for it.

I think with activation and the ui effects disabled, most people who really want vista will go and buy it... those that don't care about that stuff will just stay with XP.

No, it really doesn't. Those who pirate often do so because they simply can't afford it or have no intention of buying it nor ever have. And something as simple as a disabled UI will get cracked within a week.

[Bamsebjørn]

Read that license agreement, all of the MSDN products are for evaluation and testing purposes only. If you use them commercially or as a retail version, then you are still pirating.

Now, I have read the licence agreement, and I found out I'm not doing anything illegal:

The MSDN End User License Agreement (EULA) allows each person with an MSDN license to use all of the software that is included in the subscription for development, test, and demonstration purposes only.

I'm a developer... so I'm safe here.

In addition, one copy of Office Professional 2003 can be used for general business use, unrelated to development and testing. Again, only persons with an MSDN Premium Subscription license can use these Microsoft Office products in this manner.

My company has a Premium Subscription for me... so I'm safe there too...

I installed everything on my notebook, which is owned by the company where I work. So, I'm completely legally using MSDN.

[phalex]

good thinking on Bill's part.

piracy is bad if you're a startup company trying to pull ahead.

however, on the large scale, the more people pirate your product, the more people use it overall. which gets your market share rising and developers pumping resources in the OS, which in turn, gets more people to buy the OS in the first place.

besides, how can it bother him with all the billions he's worth..

if Apple adopted this way of thinking, and loosened up on their tight-assed system, maybe OSX would take off.. but then again...