Microsoft Announces Anti-Piracy Day
It’s Anti-Piracy Day according to Microsoft, although that doesn’t mean everyone gets the day off.
While not an official federal holiday for all to enjoy, Bill and the Gang are setting forth a "24-hour snapshot" of enforcement actions and "education initiatives" that will span across 49 countries and six continents. This massive, global assault plans to squash pirating once and for all with new legal actions against alleged software counterfeiters and pirates as well as local law enforcement training, educational forums, IP awareness campaigns and more. In other words, Microsoft plans to squash pirates like tiny little bugs. The company even launched a special website to keep consumers and entrepreneurs alike informed and up-to-date.
"Software piracy and counterfeiting is a sophisticated, global trade with a damaging impact on consumers, businesses and economies, and Microsoft is committed to working with others around the world to stay a step ahead of this illegal industry," said David Finn, associate general counsel for Worldwide Anti-Piracy and Anti-Counterfeiting at Microsoft. "In partnership with national governments, local law enforcement agencies, and our customer and partner communities, Microsoft is driving anti-piracy efforts across countries and continents through an equally sophisticated system of business intelligence, forensics, and education. Together, we are working to identify international connection points between software pirates and counterfeiters, to help stop them in their tracks and protect consumers and legitimate businesses from this illegal trade."
While one can’t help but applaud their efforts, piracy seems to continue to ravage the PC industry like a wild, hungry animal. According to Microsoft, more than one third of PCs globally contain unlicensed, pirated, or counterfeit software. That’s quite a bit of money overall, and in 2007, the global economic loss was estimated at nearly US$50 billion according to the Fifth Annual BSA and IDC Global Software Piracy Study, May 2008.
Yet when you listen to publishers and developers in the gaming industry, they will fire back and say that piracy is killing the business altogether. Randy Stude, president of the newly-formed PC Gaming Alliance, spoke about piracy in a recent interview with VideoGamer.com and actually blamed some of the publishers for the piracy problem. "Any publisher today who’s making any game that’s going out on any platform and isn’t thinking about the potential of piracy with the widespread availability of broadband and the patience that people have to kick-off a download that may take a day or more, if they’re not thinking that’s a real problem for them or a potential problem for them, then they’re going to have challenges and they’re going to act like it’s a big surprise. It’s like anything else in business."
But Microsoft, who has a stake in the video game business, seems assured that this latest initiative will benefit everyone in the PC industry and perhaps even console-based publishers and developers. Its recent efforts include launching an anti-piracy weblog in Brazil, training sessions on cybercrimes in Turkey, launching an employee anti-piracy ambassador program in Italy, and the company just filed 20 civil lawsuits in federal court in nine states "against resellers alleged to be selling computers with preloaded unlicensed and/or counterfeit Microsoft Windows XP Professional and multiple versions of Microsoft Office software." Ouch.
"The global trade in fakes threatens consumers, businesses and the economy," said Guy Sebban, secretary general of the International Chamber of Commerce. "It will only be possible to halt counterfeiting and piracy on a global scale through this kind of collaboration between governments and the private sector — both to educate people about the value of intellectual property and to take action against trade in illicit products."
In the long run, Microsoft is not only out to protect the industry’s economy, but to protect the consumers as well. The launch of the Windows Genuine Advantage was to assure its customers that the installed operating system is an actual product, and not a hacked install that could potentially harm the consumer. After all, pirated operating systems could very well send out personal information to the hacker. Yet many consumers see the WGA as nothing more than an aggravation and an infringement on their privacy. The same holds true for anti-piracy software (DRM) installing on PCs such as SecuROM, SafeDisc and StarForce.
Yet piracy isn’t a hobby. It’s a business and an evil adversary to all software companies whether it’s related to games, document editors or 3D modeling programs. "There is growing evidence that highly organized, transnational criminal organizations and networks are involved in the counterfeiting of software and other goods. This is a global problem with global sources of supply; this is why we need to work together — the public and the private sectors — to stop this trade," said John Newton of the Intellectual Property Rights Project, Financial and High-Tech Crime Subdirectorate, INTERPOL General Secretariat. "To that end, Microsoft and INTERPOL are now cooperating with police and customs agencies around the world to use all available intelligence to ensure that our joint investigations lead to arrests and convictions of criminal counterfeiters."
Sounds like someone is turning up the heat. Maybe this is what the industry needs: an aggressive approach to inform, educate, and eradicate. But there’s a positive light at the end of the tunnel: the industry is actually making some headway in its battle against piracy. According to David Finn, the piracy rate in Western Europe has dropped to 34 percent in comparison to the 78 percent level in 1991. Even though that could be defined as a 1:5 ratio (one out of five is illegitimate), it’s only a matter of time before companies figure out the sweet spot and thwart pirates altogether. Still, resourceful individuals will find any attempt to stop piracy as a challenge, thus double their efforts.
Is this a war to be won? Time will tell. In the meantime, Happy Anti-Piracy Day!
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It should not be: "We'll make piracy easy, but slap you with massive fines when you do it"
It SHOULD BE: "We'll make it harder to pirate software so it's not so proliferated"
Really don't expect to complain about people doing it when you won't even fight it in your software,you just try and catch the people and put them in court.
I don't usually take an attitude like this, but the rich b-tards can take care of it themselves. Seriously, unless they start paying me to be pro active with regards to this or concerned at all, they can shove it up their red hot glowing asses. Declaring a holiday is so arrogant and condescending to anyone not on the payroll there...They're not getting the money they need so the prices go up, they can shove it up their...once again.
I apologize in the same breath for these comments, but I really can't feel anything other than condescended to by a group of rich jackals upon hearing of their declaration. I've never had the leisure of paying a good price for software, since I always pay a premium price, provided it's not free to begin with. Honestly it isn't you they're concerned about, it's their own companies earnings.
ah, you've got it all wrong brendano, microsoft is an american company. In america, we solve things after they become problems, not before the problems exist!
At least they haven't sued a 12 year-old to make a statement of just how hard they can smack their bitch up.
The Linux and BSD users strongly support Microsoft's efforts.
"Bill and the Gang"? Have you been living under a rock? Bill Gates isn't at MS anymore.
"it’s only a matter of time before companies figure out the sweet spot and thwart pirates altogether." No, there will always be some piracy. It's just how the world is.
lawl. I would not be surprised if pirates launch a DoS attack on that "special website" that day.
damaging? how so? I see no damage to that lot. Maybe damage to Microsoft's bank account. But thats ok, 1 less Microsoft in the world. The better.
Pirates! you make Microsoft bigger, more popular, and more entangled into society by providing their software for free. You make innocent people dependent on crappy proprietary software. The novelty of having an expensive thing for free will always exist among "poor" people.
Humans in general are naive, "If its free, it cant be any good"; and conversely "OMG! thats $300 in the store, i'm getting it for free!!! wikid!!!"
Microsoft will always make money from its Server & Tools division. Using licenses and contracts. Piracy can never be a threat to them with the current infrastructure in place for software deployment.
Microsoft is being squeezed by Vista, and wants to milk every last bit out of their value chain.
Piracy is a solution to a problem people want.
Please use free software and stop piracy.
Ubuntu/Fedora/Suse, try a linux distro today!
How about an anti-greedy corporation day? And I'm surprised Tom's is naive enough to suggest that Microsoft is out to protect the consumer. The facts and figures they throw around are misleading and just make me mad. These companies are raking in huge profits and really their only threat is free open source alternatives.
You know I think its out right hilarious that out of those who claim to be affected by piracy Microsoft is certainly the one with the least amount of worries and should be the last one to rally behind this never mind create it.
If Microsoft is seriously not happy with its profits then I think its clear that human greed has no limits.
Just plain stupid. All i gotta say.
You aren't just stealing from a ceo when you pirate your stealing from the world.
DRM=fail. Pirateing=fail epicly. Get it right before you post.
Lmao @ protecting consumers... Microsoft is just greedy hungry rich bastards. If there were no pirates the prices wouldn't drop one freaking bit and microsoft knows it. So how is this also "protecting the consumer".
Game companys actually have a leg to stand on, but I'm sick and tired of these idiots only saying pc's. I know plenty of people with modded consoles, and now are just as easy to pirate as any pc game.
Back to microsoft I hope they go to far. And piss people off to go to linux, and os like that. So just maybe more games will start supporting them also.
Yes, piracy is wrong. But these big corporations need to get off their high horse. Specially microsoft for reasons I won't go into. Micrsoft is simply throwing stones out of a glass house, and are getting pissed because some people throw stones right back at them.
i think, the focus of the piracy campaign is for large organizations making money out of piracy including businesses using pirated software.
everyone knows that corporate microsoft is growing yearly, they only lose the maximum potential profit.
"Global Anti-Piracy Day" is rather tasteless and offensive of Microsoft, given the actual robbery and murder at sea currently in the news off the coast of Somalia. Copying that floppy is hardly comparable. Offensive idiots.
My blog rant: http://tinyurl.com/5rt664
I don't even condone software piracy, but something about Microsoft having their own "holiday" dedicated to it really rubs me the wrong way.
Also, "...it’s only a matter of time before companies figure out the sweet spot and thwart pirates altogether." Suuuuuuuuuuure.
Wonder when the Linux community are going to arrange an Anti-Piracy Day!
I'll guess that even the pirates doesn't want Vista!
I'll guess that even the pirates doesn't want Vista!
Piracy extends far beyond Microsoft. It's one of the reasons we are seeing fewer PC games and less support by publishers for PC games. Piracy gives the PC a bad rap to Producers who then give developers fewer freedoms.
People say SecureRom doesn't really hurt piracy it only hurts those that actually buy the game. If that truly is the case we are going to see yet another drop in PC gaming support.
Yea it is true that there are some in the console world that install mod chips and pirate games, I know a few. There are only a few people who don't have pirated PC games. Almost every gamer I know has at least one pirated PC game.
There is almost no way piracy can kill Microsoft. On the gaming end piracy likely doesn't hurt Microsofts bottom line. All the bad press about lawsuits end the end will prollly do more harm then good for em. I would like to have the PC industry a little closer to what it used to be. I am glad they are trying.
Wait a minute, it's the company who wants to sell their product, which they've spent countless hours on to program, who is greedy, but not the F'ing thief who wants someone else's work for nothing? He's not greedy? Huh?
You see, capitalism works and is fair because no one forces you to buy. You want the game because it gives you benefit, companies can't make profits by selling expensive crap, those who try have their products sit on the shelves and go bankrupt. There are some that can sell crap for cheap, but only if the buyer can get enough benefit for the money, in other words, a good value.
PC gaming is dying, not because of bad rap or some other BS. It's because those who try to make a game and then sell it can't make a profit. And so the company goes out of business or stops making games for PC. Others can see the data, see that they won't be able to make a profit either and so they stop servicing the PC market too. Why should they bother?
Look at all the anger towards a company who wants to get the message out and stop piracy. Where is the anger against pirates? And why isn't there anger towards police then for stopping criminals and enforcing the law. The police serve the establishment, they protect those who have stuff from people who want to take them, thus serving the "rich" who have stuff. It is very greedy for the rich to want to keep their stuff and not "share" their wealth involuntarily.
It's also so greedy for a company or someone to expect to be paid for their labor or service. My rooms could use a cleaning, but the greedy maid wants to be paid! She already makes money from other people, doesn't she understand I want my room to be cleaned? Now if she'd ask for a reasonable wage like $1 a day, I'd consider paying her sometime when I feel like it, but demanding more is ridiculous greed especially since she has all these rules and restrictions. I can't just have her wait at my front door always and clean whenever I say so, I have to schedule a time! Look at how restrictive and terrible that is. That's why I shouldn't have to pay her to clean, if only she would wait outside all the time so that I could get my room cleaned whenever I wanted without prior notice or delay, then I would be willing to pay more, maybe even $2 an hour. Her restrictions just hurt honest people who will pay $2 an hour and force people like me to stiff her. She makes enough from others anyway.