Malaysian Police Not Roping Longhorn Rustlers

Artifex writes "CNN/Reuters reports that an early release of Microsoft's next operating system, 'Longhorn,' is already being sold openly in markets in Malaysia, with local police doing little to stop it. Microsoft's response, of course, is that consumers should steer clear. I'm sure this chaps their hides, as crashing copies of this as-yet-unreleased product are sure to cause dilution of branding."

Comments

What use could it possibly be?

[StyleChief]

It seems that the utility of such a release would be limited at best. Perhaps the publicizing of this simply serves as more proverbial "egg on the face" of Microsoft than any other purpose.

There is one solution to piracy: free software

[SexyKellyOsbourne]

The only solution to piracy in the third world is free, open-source software. Many countries being harassed by the various shady trade organizations for piracy, such as China, Brazil, and Vietnam, are switching over to open source as much as possible. There is no way that people who live on a dollar a day are going to be able to shell out hundreds of dollars every year for proprietary, closed-source software, and software companies are foolish to worry about it.

In fact, the Malaysian authorities punishing such persecution, usually at the indirect prodding of US corporations and the US corporate government, will backfire. If there's no persecution Windows is 95% pirated, then Microsoft makes 5% -- if they are persecuted and forced to switch to free software, and FreeBSD gets used for everything, then Microsoft gets 0%. Supporting punishment of third-world pirates, thus forcing them to switch to free software, is actually good for the open source movement.

no, no, no, it's all good business

[ciaran_o_riordan]

Microsoft have to say "oh, we wish this wasn't happening". If they didn't say that, the west would get annoyed, and complain about unfairness. (because we all know how badly off the west is :-)

Microsoft can get enforcement whenever they want, but in poorer countries, the market saturation is more important. (and that these illegal copies will train people to know Microsoft).

When they want to flip the table, they complain to the US govt, the US govt threatens to put malasia on the 301 Watch List (list of countries where the US aren't happy with "IP enforcement). Once they go on this list, people are afraid to trade with them, the IMF stops loaning them cash, and the World Bank stops rolling over it's existing loans. This happened to Korea already (and it was Microsoft that made it happen).

Add to this that the US delegation to the WIPO summits always contains Microsoft representatives (as "industry experts"), and you have a lot of control, without being visible, whenever they want.

My 0.02 ringgit on the issue

[GillBates0]

He said software companies were working with the authorities on the problem, but the police were more concerned about controlling pornography.

If, indeed, the police are treating this issue as secondary to illegal pornography, then I would say they are on the right track.

Not that I am against pr0n as such, but a lot of human suffering goes into producing much of it, especially much of the cheap, street quality stuff. Most of the characters are drugged/coerced into performing by their overlords, any many do it out of necessity, in order to get their square meals. Most of them are prostitutes, who were forced in by pimps/etc.

So, to end the rant, I think the police have their priorities right, if they're more worried about stopping the pr0n racket than protecting the rights of a multi-billion dollar company.

Re:My 0.02 ringgit on the issue

[bmajik]

I agree with you completely, and i work for microsoft :)

If the police only have enough time to attack one evil, and they get to choose between going after people selling burnt CD's of Longhorn Alpha, or, they get to go after illegal porn (where $illegal is something like snuff films, or child porn, etc), i say go after the illegal porn.

I'd guess that they aren't behaving so virtuously though, if they're anything like most US cops. They probably just don't care about software piracy. Maybe there's no money to be made raiding $1.58 piracy rings as compared to the money to be made going after illegal porn vendors.

I sure wish american cops would spend more time solving problems like rape and murder as opposed to setting up speed traps on highways where the speed limits are set artificially low..

but, speed traps give much better returns than arresting rapists only so that they can get out of jail in 6 months and do it again.

They'll just change the name...

[drywater]

Six months before it's released, they'll change the name to Windows 2006 or whatever and all of the bad press goes away. Sheep consumers hear Windows 2006 and think, "Well, it's not that Longhorn version I've heard so many bad things about, so it must be okay." They buy it up because they're too scared to try anything else even though the new EULA says that MS can turn on your webcam and watch you any time they want.

Re:Buggy Leaks

[arivanov]

Ahem. I have seen this in at least several countries. Intentional leaks including leaks by authorized MSFT staff (on payroll). No persecution, nothing until the market penetration hits 90+% and Novell, Oracle, IBM and other companies stupid enough to ask money for software disappear into oblivion. And then comes Billy Boy to talk with the PM and starts tightenting the bolts. In three years the country is paying the standard MSFT rate and it cannot switch because there is no personnel trained in alternatives and there is no money for alternatives because all IT software budget money goes to MSFT. There is simply no free money around on the IT budgets for any conversions.