Posts Tagged ‘pirated’
Microsoft highlights financial harm of pirated software on Play Fair Day
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Microsoft has examined the financial harm of piated software and published the results on Thursday.
The software giant is highlighting the damage of pirated software as part of the company’s global Play Fair Day. “We are examining the financial harm software piracy inflicts on those that “play fair” in developing countries,” said Microsoft’s associate general counsel, David Finn, in a blog post on Thursday. “We’re announcing the results of a study we commissioned that measures the direct financial impact on manufacturing companies who use legal software in Brazil, Russia, India and China, four of the fastest-growing countries in the world.”
The results show that in Brazil, Russian, India and China, manufacturers that “play fair” and use genuine software suffer more than $ 1.6 million in competitive disadvantage each year. A Microsoft-commissioned research study by Keystone Strategy found that this scales up to $ 8.2 billion over a five-year software lifecycle. “Playing fair is not just an issue in emerging markets,” explained Finn. Microsoft has voiced its support of a recent letter to the U.S. Federal Trade Commissioners, calling for stronger federal enforcement against companies around the world who use pirated software. “The study released today quantifies the amount of that cost advantage in four of the most vibrant markets in the world,” added Finn. “We hope this information and the powerful, real-life examples of companies in those countries who’ve chosen to compete by paying for their software rather than stealing it.”
Microsoft has been tackling piracy of its products for years. CEO Steve Ballmer toured China earlier this year and chose to highlight the company’s Chinese piracy issues. Ballmer revealed that Microsoft’s revenue per PC sold in China is only around a sixth of the amount it receives in India. Microsoft’s Chinese revenues will only be about 5% of what it gets in the U.S., despite PC sales being roughly equal in both countries. Ballmer also previously teamed up with U.S. President Barack Obama to discuss Microsoft’s concerns at Chinese IP piracy problems. Ballmer met with a number of U.S. and Chinese business leaders at the White House earlier this year. Obama also hinted that Chinese President Hu Jintao had agreed to take action. “I appreciate his willingness to take new steps to combat the theft of intellectual property,” the U.S. president said.
Microsoft also revealed last year that 25% of Russian software outlets sell pirated Microsoft software. Russia is one of the biggest pirates of Microsoft software but it’s a situation that is only improving. Microsoft Russia’s anti-piracy lead, Denis Guz, explained in an email to WinRumors last year that Russia’s current piracy rate of 68% is low compared to some emerging markets. “We are seeing some significant improvements in the recent years due to combined efforts of Russian government, rightholders’ associations and software vendors. Current momentum is very strong, especially if it comes to piracy offers in PC retail which we monitor very closely on a regular basis” said Guz. The software giant setup an online Microsoft Store in November last year to tackle piracy in the country.
Microsoft highlights financial harm of pirated software on Play Fair Day originally appeared at WinRumors.com.
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What Do The Most Pirated Games Of 2010 Tell Us About Ourselves?
Author: Jon Mitchell
Trusting in TorrentFreak’s numbers, Call of Duty: Black Ops was the most downloaded (read: pirated) game of 2010. You probably could have predicted that, but there’s something far more interesting in the Xbox 360 numbers, and it’s that Black Ops was only the fifth most pirated game of the year. The number one Xbox 360 game on this ignominious list is Dante’s Inferno. That’s an odd one.
Lord only knows how TorrentFreak is able to put together these lists, but they’re the best we’re ever going to get, so it’s worth a quick discussion.
First of all: can we finally put aside the notion that piracy is only possible on the PC? To install a PC game these days pretty much requires you to draw a chalk outline of Metatron in your kitchen, then hope to high heaven that Ubisoft’s (or whoever’s) authentication servers remain online. Why don’t you have to do that with the console version?
Oh, right: because piracy online exists on the PC, so let’s spend untold sums either developing or buying a DRM regime. That’ll solve the problem.
Then there’s the obvious one: what good did all that DRM do if people are still able to pirate the game?
The Nintendo list is also worth a mention, with Super Mario Galaxy 2 coming in first place. What’s most interesting here is that, looking around various Usenet indexing sites, it seems that Nintendo games have a habit of disappearing from popular servers. Could Nintendo be quietly fighting Usenet-based piracy? It would certainly seem that way.
As to my headline question, it would suggest that we’re all fine with playing generic shooter after generic shooter, over and over again. Let’s not forget that all those music games pretty much ruled the world a few years ago, and where are they now? Could the same thing happen to the current Call of Duty craze?
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Google: Augen’s $150 iPad rival using pirated Android
Author: Stacey Cook
Google: Augen’s $150 iPad rival using pirated Android
The mystery $150 Augen Android tablet at Kmart is using a bootleg copy of Android, Google said in a response this afternoon. The GenTouch78 is using software it shouldn’t have from an “unauthorized vendor” and has bypassed the usual legal channels. Only members of the Open Handset Alliance or official partners can use the software legally, the search firm told Laptop in a statement…. Google …
