Microsoft Launches Comical Effort to Fight Piracy

theodp writes "A week before the release of Vista, Microsoft is expanding its fight against software piracy with a new educational effort that includes comics. Making its U.S. debut Monday, the Genuine Fact Files campaign aims to make Microsoft's message more accessible to a broader audience. BTW, Vista's Software Protection Platform (SPP) can put unvalidated copies of the software into a reduced-functionality mode. From the article: 'Microsoft plans to draw attention to it through banner ads on its Web sites and promotional material that it will hand out through partners. By using comics, the company aims to make the message more accessible to a broader audience. They are black and white, in a style similar to newspaper comics.'"

Comments

So uncool

[udderly]

Isn't it peculiar that when someone (an individual, gov't or corporation) tries to pander to the hip or "kewl" crowd, it actually comes off as even more contrived and lame. This Microsoft comic reminds me of junior-high school health classes about drugs or sex.

Besides that, Microsoft has to walk a fine line with software piracy. If they could eliminate it entirely, that would be when you would see a more mainstream adoption of FOSS.

Re:So uncool

[TodMinuit]

If they could eliminate it entirely, that would be when you would see a more mainstream adoption of FOSS. ... That makes NO sense. If FOSS applications were equal to that of the closed source realm, people would be using them regardless of whether piracy was possible.

Re:So uncool

[Scoria]

It depends on what age group Microsoft ultimately targets with their campaign. A 9 or 10-year-old would be much more likely to accept their propaganda than, say, a 14-year-old. Microsoft seems keenly aware that older people can generally recognize their campaign for what it is, but that younger people won't be as cynical, and might not differentiate this from anything else they are taught in the classroom.

Re:So uncool

[MindStalker]

What he means is that there are a LOT of people who are using pirated versions of Windows who would switch to something free if they couldn't pirate windows anymore. There is a huge percent of the population of the world who simply can NOT pay $200+ for an OS for their personal computers. Most of China for example, and plenty of places in the US as well. Nowadays you can get a computer for $400 or so from Dell with Windows installed, but in the past when building your own computer was cheaper, there were a lot of people who the $200 difference in adding an OS would have simply opted to have no computer at all.

Re:So uncool

[tomee]

Well, there would be some people who currently pirate the software who would then be presented with a barrier for getting the new software, which might make them reconsider their options when otherwise they are just too comfortable with what they have.

Re:So uncool

[clickclickdrone]

That makes NO sense

I'm not so sure. There are a lot of reasonably savvy people who are basically just lazy. Got a new PC? Off to your fav. appz source to grab the latest MS Office, XP Pro (probably Vista RTM now), Nero, Photoshop CS etc. If suddenly it becomes impossible to find those, they'll be happy with 80-90% of the functionality at 0% of the price by doing a bit of research, hunting around then grabbing the closest equivalent free versions.
There are a significant number of people who used pirate software through collage when they're broke, get used to them then when they're financially better off, start to buy the real thing. You'll start losing those sales if they start off with free software right from thr word go.

Re:So uncool

[Divebus]

It will be just as effective as the FBI warnings on all DVDs. That's not a deterrent. Shutting off your OS remotely is a deterrent for the user - a deterrent from using the OS to start with, that is. I wonder which Einstein® thought this one up?

Re:So uncool

[udderly]

I'm not claiming that FOSS applications are necessarily the equal of closed-source software (although many of them obviously are)--it's just that you can't get cheaper than free.

I have so many customers who are running pirated Windows or Office that it's not even funny. That or they are still running Office 97. If these people had to shell out $250-$400 for Office or $150 for XP Pro, they would switch in to OO and Linux in about the same time it would take to hear that it's free (as in beer).

My wife is a perfect example of someone who *doesn't* need Windows. She logs on in the AM to check her Yahoo mail account, checks the local news, buys some stuff from Amazon or eBay, then heads to work.

Re:So uncool

[paeanblack]

My wife is a perfect example of someone who *doesn't* need Windows. She logs on in the AM to check her Yahoo mail account, checks the local news, buys some stuff from Amazon or eBay, then heads to work.

That's not a matter of not needing Windows, that's a matter of someone not needing a desktop PC at all. Imagine a cell phone cradle that supported a keyboard/mouse/monitor console. She has one console at home, has one at work, and she carries her "desktop" in her purse.

I'm still curious why we are still years away from practical products like this.

Re:So uncool

[camperdave]

There is a huge percent of the population of the world who simply can NOT pay $200+ for an OS for their personal computers.

Add to that 400+ for an office suite, 100+ for anti-(virus/spyware), 100ish for Quicken, and you've doubled the cost of the machine. Software is simply overpriced. If Microsoft, and the rest, reduced their prices by an order of magnitude, they'd find a lot less people getting their software from illegitimate sources.

Re:So uncool

[nick13245]

If they can't afford a $200 operating system, they shouldn't be using it. Maybe if piracy wasn't so easy, more people would be forced to move to another operating system like Linux. Instead, people decide that it's easier to steal. Microsoft owns the software. They can charge however much they want, and they have the right to protect their software from piracy. They're doing a very good job at it, and I applaud their efforts.

Re:So uncool

[grahamlee]

We're not; you are though. The SunRay server software has a "WanRay" component which allows you to use a SunRay over a WAN; there are even WLAN-capable laptop form-factor SunRay devices from Tadpole. This means that you could have a SunRay at home and at work (or just take one with you) and wherever you are, your desktop state is retained at the server and available when you stick the smartcard in the front. I used to run SunRays in a physics lab, the only real problem in that setting was with sharing resources between users, but I think that the processor set interface which Solaris now has would obviate that.

Re:So uncool

[coleopterana]

*snicker* That's exactly what I did. I left college. I couldn't use Win2k safely anymore. I stopped wanting to deal with all the security BS, and I didn't need it for school/work (this might seem trivial to readers here, but for laboratory analytical researchers, you can't just move your software over to Linux at the drop of a hat, and you work way too much to not take it home). I guess you could say we all have to leave our abusive relationships someday.

Re:So uncool

[petermgreen]

That makes NO sense. If FOSS applications were equal to that of the closed source realm, people would be using them regardless of whether piracy was possible.
firstly even if they were "equal" people would be likely to stick with what they were familiar with unless put under high pressure not to.

secondly even though windows/windows server/office/iis/.net and linux/samba/openoffice/apache/php aren't equal (they each have thier own strenghts and weaknesses) i'm sure there are plenty of people who use pirate MS software now who would rather put up with a switch to linux than pay for MS software. I'd imagine this is especially true in poorer countries where the time/money balance is somwhat different.

microsoft can't admit it but i'm postive they would preffer you to run pirate MS software than to run a linux based stack because while windows remains dominant some people will continue to pay for it (buisnesses threatened by the BSA, OEMs, the paranoid, those without access to a supply of pirate software, those who simply respect copyright etc)

Re:So uncool

[CrazedWalrus]

That's not a matter of not needing Windows, that's a matter of someone not needing a desktop PC at all. That's true of most computer owners. When computers moved away from the scientific/business user and into the mainstream, they became vastly overcomplicated and expensive for the purposes they generally serve. My Blackberry does most of what people do with their computers, but the interface is a little cramped, which is where your idea comes in.

It seems like WebTV was probably a great idea that was simply before its time. Here to fill the niche now is task-specific Linux desktops (Internet client, Business Workstation, Scientific Workstation, Audio Pro workstation, etc), where a given distro has pre-defined package sets to fill the most likely needs of a given class of user. I think that's why people need to stop shying away from trying to convert people to "Linux on the Desktop", and to start looking for classes of users where this is feasible. A big niche is the web browser/email/IM types who just use their computer as a communication device, and this niche is easily filled by Linux.

Re:So uncool

[uradu]

> in the past when building your own computer was cheaper, there were a lot of people who the $200 difference
> in adding an OS would have simply opted to have no computer at all.

Well, depending on the specs you're shooting for, you can still build something somewhat cheaper today, but alas WITHOUT Windows. Once you add (even an OEM copy of) Windows into the mix, the whole equation collapses. I must say though that MS have succeeded pretty handily in souring the Windows "pirating" experience with the whole Genuine Advantage thing, "pirating" in many cases consisting of installing one purchased copy on multiple home computers. While there might be workarounds, installing SPs can be such a PITA that it seriously makes one consider alternatives. And frankly, for many of the extra computers a geek might find useful in the home, which often tend to be in some sort of server role, Windows doesn't really hold a lot of advantages over Linux. As soon as you don't need to run Windows-only desktop productivity apps on a particular machine, Linux can easily become the preferred choice.

Re:So uncool

[91degrees]

Imagine a cell phone cradle that supported a keyboard/mouse/monitor console. She has one console at home, has one at work, and she carries her "desktop" in her purse.

Not sure that's needed. Chips are cheap as chips:) Putting components of equivalent power to those in a mobile phone would probably be so cheap as to not affect the price sufficiently. To me, it seems the main issue with a PC is the amount of space it takes up. It really requires a desk and a section of a room to itself. This is more of a problem if you want more than 1 computer.

Re:So uncool

[Elektroschock]

Piracy is an essential part of the closed source business model. It works as asp shareware.

The difference: shareware means registrators are "good guys".
Piracy means unautorised users should feel as "bad guys"

The piracy the Companies go after is not the average joe unauthorised use, but commercial
counterfeiting of their software products.

Re:So uncool

[paeanblack]

We're not; you are though. The SunRay server software has a "WanRay" component which allows you to use a SunRay over a WAN; there are even WLAN-capable laptop form-factor SunRay devices from Tadpole. This means that you could have a SunRay at home and at work (or just take one with you) and wherever you are, your desktop state is retained at the server and available when you stick the smartcard in the front. I used to run SunRays in a physics lab, the only real problem in that setting was with sharing resources between users, but I think that the processor set interface which Solaris now has would obviate that.

A portable desktop in a "laptop form-factor device"? Sounds intriguing...I think you may be on to something.

Re:So uncool

[MindStalker]

True, but the point is MS as a company has to walk a fine line. If from the beginning people didn't pirate windows, home computer use of windows would have been MUCH less. These people would then have not demanded windows for their work computers. In effect their buisness is very much built upon home pirating use. Now on the other hand if this had been the case, MS would have significantly dropped the price by now, either way, the computer software world would be a totally different beast, more akin to the hardware world, where price competition is strong.

Re:So uncool

[Technician]

There are a significant number of people who used pirate software through collage when they're broke, get used to them then when they're financially better off, start to buy the real thing. You'll start losing those sales if they start off with free software right from thr word go.

Good point. There are lots of academic copies of Photoshop Pro, MS Office, and such. I am older and didn't get these in school, so I am much more versed in The Gimp and Open Office. This is especialy true when the big anti-piracy business busting BSA started their heavy handed tactics. I very quickly fled to free alternative legit software and started avoiding those behind the BSA squad.

Much of my software is un-regestered. Registration is not required. It's more of a privacy issue than a piracy issue. Is it possible to register your copy of Ubuntu, Open Office, Abi Word, Gnome, Banshee, and the Gimp? I have not been asked to register any of it.

Re:So uncool

[norman619]

Your comment would be true for those who only use their PC's for word-processing and email. That would be a small percentage. One the top uses people have for PC today after email and word-processing is gaming. You failed to take into account the software developers. They are not very likely to start porting things over to a FOSS when the Windows user base is pretty much locked in. If anyone who did more than just email and word-processing did as you said I would be willing to bet that $200 price tag would become less of an obstacle. I tried moving to Linux not too long ago and while I loved the OS I couldn't do what I needed to get things done. I'm all for FOSS but until software vendors actually start supporting it they will not be a viable alternative to the MS juggernaut that is Windows. Porting their applications to another OS is costly. Keep that in mind.

Re:So uncool

[PopeRatzo]

If Microsoft, and the rest, reduced their prices by an order of magnitude, they'd find a lot less people getting their software from illegitimate sources.

I might be the most anti-DRM/anti-Intellectual Property person around here, but this argument that a company should lower its prices to discourage stealing is ridiculous. You're saying that because Rolex charges $5k for a watch, then it's OK to steal one.

Microsoft can charge what they want for a product and you can decide whether or not to buy it. Or, you can decide to pirate a copy, but please don't justify stealing by presenting yourself as a crusader against high-prices. [by the way, I'm not saying necessarily that I believe using a hacked version of Windows is stealing]

I'm also not one of the "free-market" types, but the best way to get Microsoft to lower prices would be to have some competition in the marketplace that competes on price-point (which leaves Apple out).

Linux does that to a certain extent, but it's not enough.

Re:So uncool

[EzInKy]

Microsoft owns the software.


No, they do not. By virtue of a grant graciously given to them by the people through their representatives they have a monopoly to copy the software for a limited time, but they certainly don't own it.

Re:So uncool

[allscan]

Agreed, one of the first things I did after my first few paychecks at a real job was to get a "real" copy of XP (since I couldn't use updates anymore). Granted I bought an OEM edition and did a complete reinstall so I knew I didn't have any junk from my school's network left on there, but all the same.

Re:So uncool

[Elektroschock]

MS propaganda efforts are always very entertaining. Not to forget comical Ballmer. We find it entertaining, so why not the kids.

The point is that the classical consumer software works the same as shareware.
Shareware: you are the good guy when you register
Classic Model: You are the bad guy when you got a copy from your friends.

One is driven by fear, the other by reward. But both need distribution by copying. Unautorised use is part of the business model in both cases! De facto the closed source software market has become a shareware market.

Organisations as the BSA just need to scare the public (but not to much) and combat commercial large scale counterfeiters. However, overambitious legislators could change that.

Re:So uncool

[aussie_a]

I might be the most anti-DRM/anti-Intellectual Property person around here, but this argument that a company should lower its prices to discourage stealing is ridiculous. You're saying that because Rolex charges $5k for a watch, then it's OK to steal one. I find your claim to be anti-IP while still equating copyright infringement with stealing ridiculous.

Re:So uncool

[vertinox]

A 9 or 10-year-old would be much more likely to accept their propaganda than, say, a 14-year-old.

So how is that D.A.R.E. program working out?

Re:So uncool

[grahamlee]

My point was more that the 'port your state around' bit is here now, and is even smaller than the PDA that the OP wanted to have to lug about ;-). The laptop sunray was a mere aside...

Re:So uncool

[BillGatesLoveChild]

Every time Bill Gates says "Cool" the word leaks some of its meaning.

  > put unvalidated copies of the software into a reduced-functionality mode

Bill, I think before you play hard to get, you should first see if anyone might be interested to begin with.

Re:So uncool

[TimTheFoolMan]

It seems to me that the GP didn't say that the high price made stealing OK. They merely said that reducing the price would reduce piracy. Look at AutoCAD. You can make a very strong argument that one of the primary reasons for its market position is because they looked the other way at piracy, while keeping the price ridiculously high. They got market share from piracy, and outrageous revenue from "honest" users.

Sound familiar? - Tim

Re:So uncool

[tbannist]

It's simple:

Microsoft doesn't make cell phones or have a monopoly on cell phone embedded operating systems, thus it is against their interests to support or encourage this type of device.

Re:So uncool

[topical_surfactant]

Good point. There are lots of academic copies of Photoshop Pro, MS Office, and such. I am older and didn't get these in school, so I am much more versed in The Gimp and Open Office. This is especialy true when the big anti-piracy business busting BSA started their heavy handed tactics. I very quickly fled to free alternative legit software and started avoiding those behind the BSA squad.

I flat-out pirated those in college. No money, no time to mess around. After graduating, I went legit. Except, I still crack my legit XP on reinstallation so I don't have to ask daddy Bill if can I pleeeeeeeease have my windows back cuz I messsed up my compie again. Yeah, no IE7, no noncritical updates, but these "tantalizing fruits" have yet to overcome my serious case of M$ apathy. In fact, if there's no similar crack for Vista by the time I get around to wanting to buy an OS upgrade, I will be going 100% FOS, and WGA can suck it.

Once I discovered the Gimp, I realized I had zero use for Photoshop, and so I just deleted my pirated version and stuck with the freebie. MSOffice is unfortunately necessary due to work, but I try very hard to use openoffice whenever possible. Seeing that crossover office gets the job done in linux quite nicely, it looks like the only thing standing in the way of a full switch (sans the office suite) is...laziness.

And OpenOffice does ask you to register, but it's quite polite and not pushy about the whole thing. :)

Re:So uncool

[Schemat1c]

If from the beginning people didn't pirate windows, home computer use of windows would have been MUCH less. These people would then have not demanded windows for their work computers. I remember it the other way around, when 3.1 came out we practically had to force it on our users. The home pirating began when users were required to submit things in Word and Excel format and they needed to access these documents from home. Before that most people that had computers seemed perfectly content with Lotus and Wordperfect and if not they got a Mac.

Re:So uncool

[fotbr]

Their copyright won't expire in my lifetime, your lifetime, or likely even our kids' lifetimes.

Thanks to the Mouse and Sonny Bono, MS might as well own the software.

Re:So uncool

[mgiuca]

This is true.

So why is it aimed at IT people? (It doesn't show kids downloading software, but obviously some sort of sysadmin in an IT company).

Re:So uncool

[PopeRatzo]

You make a good point, aussie_a. I guess I just am uncomfortable with the notion that "fewer people would steal Windows if they'd just lower the price". That's not to say it's untrue, just that I don't care for that argument.

Re:So uncool

[Ash Vince]

In a great many cases FOSS applications are better than the equivalent commercial sotware.

First case in point is Apache. If you want a monkey to be able to creat a web site, go with IIS. If you want to create something truly resilient to attack, that scales well enough to cope with with very high loads without filling entire datacentre with your server farm you use Apache. Take a look at the following link: http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_surve y.html

I know MS has made some recent inroads in the case of active sites but the market share still shows Apache in the lead. Now some people may argue that since .NET Windows 2003 is better than apache. Maybe they are right, but apache still has more sites so maybe it is because things take time to change.

Once upon a time there was an expression in the IT industry the nobody was ever fired for buying IBM. This referred to the fact that even at the time (early 90's) there were alot of people making clones of IBM machines alot cheaper than IBM, businesses would still spend the extra for the IBM badge. It took a long time after the clones became cheaper for some IT managers to trust them and the price difference had to be rather large (enough for the manager to a large bonus if the switch worked out, other wise it wasn't worth the personal risk of embarassment).

I believe that recently the useability of FOSS products like Open Office has got to the state where departments could switch, especially in small business that currently get away with using one legal copy of office for the entire company. If Microsoft forced these companies to switch to Open Office or cough up for legal non-upgrade versions of office for every PC more people would end up using Open Office, especially in the case of staff who only use Office for reading other peoples Word documents once in a blue moon. If this many people became used to using non-MS office software it would help alleviate the perceived skills gap which prevents alot of companies from adopting it at present.

And this is even more apparent for home users (particularly students). Why do you think MS offers software to students so cheap? For the same reason the banks will throw money at students in the form of overdraughts, they are professionals of tomorrow so get them tied to you as early as possible. This is even more applicable to software where the skills involved often take years to accumulate.

It will take years for FOSS products to overtake commercial software even if they are better products due to the reluctance of most (sensible) business managers to take a giant leap into the unknown.

(Bit of a rambling reply but hopefully you get my point)

Re:So uncool

[LehiNephi]

There is one more group that falls under the umbrella of those who will pay for Microsoft software, and it's a biggie. Imagine a company that does business primarily through the web, with all their stuff based on the MS stack (windows/iis/.net). It's almost certain that the cost of rewriting every piece of code from .NET to php would be greater than the cost of paying for the licenses. This applies for an impressive portion of the web.

For everyone, the cost of migration is high. The cost isn't in the price of software, but in the time spent retraining people and getting the old stuff to work on the new platform.

Re:So uncool

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"I might be the most anti-DRM/anti-Intellectual Property person around here, but this argument that a company should lower its prices to discourage stealing is ridiculous. You're saying that because Rolex charges $5k for a watch, then it's OK to steal one."

Unfortunately the argument is not as simple as that. The 'protection' put in place hurts the legitimate customer. Imagine if said Rolex decided to stop working because for reasons unknown to you it no longer saw you as its rightful owner. You paid $5k for this new Rolex and the older models never had this functionality before. Then, the line they feed you is "It's to keep prices down!" What are you going to say besides "Really? The price is the same as it has always been!" ?? The result is that stolen Rolexes with that feature removed are going to go up in demand.

Microsoft wants to combat piracy, right? How's that supposed to work if Windows becomes a bigger annoyance to those that paid for it? There's no justification of 'stealing' here, it's about Microsoft handling this in an unproductive way.

Re:So uncool

[gad_zuki!]

>That's not a deterrent.

Its not really supposed to be. The idea is to spread the word that its illegal/wrong to infringe on copyright. That way people can't use the "i didnt know" defense. Ignoring the arguments for backup purposes for a moment, the real fight here is to inform people about usage. In the old days of VCRs i bet there was no shortage of people who when asked would answer no the following question 'is it illegal to copy a movie you bought and give it to all yoru friends?' Owning the movie can be seem as having unlimited copy and distribution powers, especially if there is no profit involved. This clearly isnt fair use as traditionally defined. It may not be the VCR days, but there are new computer users everday and the studios and software developers are going to keep pounding in this message. It wont stop willful infringers but it will stop someone who might have assumed otherwise.

It also can provide sympathy when the studios crack down on pirates. Average people will think 'we all know this is illegal, why should they get away with this?' Especially if its profitable and the average person thinks the pirates are gaming the system purely for personal profit.

One of the biggest defenses for P2P is that casual users had no idea what they were doing may have been illegal. They thought the p2p company was providing all these videos or free (or subsidized by ads).

Re:So uncool

[gad_zuki!]

>Imagine a cell phone cradle that supported a keyboard/mouse/monitor console.

Okay. It will need a video chipset to drive at least a 1024x768 display. At least 256megs of ram. Wifi. USB controller. Local storage of say 4 gigs minumum. A decent OS. Apps.

Now its 4x as big, 4x as expensive, and ugly.

A quick look at dell's site shows me a PC can be had for 500 dollars which comes with a 19inch LCD, 60gig drive, 512megs of ram.

Why would anyone get a super-phone? Hell, I have a treo and love it, but its not for everyone. Its very limiting and very expensive. Phones are seen as almost disposable portable devices. Losing one isnt the end of the world. Losing this is. There goes all the data, bookmarks, photos, etc.

The cheap dell sits safely in the living room with a great screen and enough power to last more than a couple years for the casual user.

Re:So uncool

[springbox]

What are you talking about? I was expecting some still images but the movie they made was actually really well done. I think the message towards the end was slightly exaggerated as the guy who installed the pirated software instantly took down the entire corporate network which resulted in things such as "identity theft."

Re:So uncool

[larytet]

there are a LOT of people who are using pirated versions of Windows who would switch to something free if they couldn't pirate windows anymore

Very true. When i tell people about Linux supposedly strong argument that Linux is free simply does not work - Windows is free software for literally everybody besides enterprises.

Arguments like "be free of viruses", "have stable system" btw do not work either.

One of the main problems I encounter is unfortunate inability to positively answer question "Will it run on my laptop ABC? ". At this point I have to enter Linux forum and check Linux compatibility with this specific laptop model and not infrequently I see that the compatibility is only partial.

I very actively push Open Source solutions among my friends. I would say that probably I am annoying in this respect. I see that slowly perception of people changes. Among the recent examples when i demonstrated Krusader and the guy decided to try Ubuntu, because Linux has WindowsCommander like application. Another killer was when i formated USB storage device which Windows did not even see - apparently partition information was damaged. Think about it. Two very simple demos of abiliteis did the trick on converting.

Linux is free ? Ok, who cares ?

Re:So uncool

[Maxo-Texas]

Why use free Openoffice when you can get a "free" copy of Office?

However, faced with a choice between a $579 full office or a Openoffice, the equation changes dramatically.
Even a "home" office at $99 is a tougher choice.

As a corporate customer, I can buy office for $20! so there is no incentive to go to openoffice either way except the fact that I want to be free of microsoft operating systems. Word is a superior product to OO currently (tho as of 2.15 OO is even closer- still crashes importing one of my main personal documents tho) but the direction Microsoft is going is very antagonistic to me personally. Plus they've been incredibly scummy ever since "DOS ain't done until Lotus won't run" back in the 80's.

Re:So uncool

[shawn(at)fsu]

There is a huge percent of the population of the world who simply can NOT pay $200+ for an OS for their personal computers.
But yet they can pay for the computer?

Re:So uncool

[jweller]

Software is simply overpriced.

Exactly. I just turned a friend on to Open Office simply because he didn't want to pay $200, or whatever it is now, for OfficeXP. I know he would have bought OfficeXP if it cost $50, it's not like he's poor, but why when you can get what you nedd for free.

Re:So uncool

[hobo sapiens]

You are right, but isn't that a lame way to get a user base? Wouldn't it actually mean something if people chose a F/OSS operating system because it was better?

Re:So uncool

[Ash-Fox]

There are a significant number of people who used pirate software through collage when they're broke, get used to them then when they're financially better off, start to buy the real thing. You'll start losing those sales if they start off with free software right from thr word go.

When I started making money, I started donating to various OSS projects that I use.

Re:So uncool

[Lumpy]

There are a significant number of people who used pirate software through collage when they're broke, get used to them then when they're financially better off, start to buy the real thing. You'll start losing those sales if they start off with free software right from thr word go.

Mostly because of two reasons...

1 - they dont bother to find out there are steeply discounted version for education/studen use.
2 - the apps they want are written by asshat companies that tell students to go F themselves and not offer discounted student versions, or the student version is still insanely priced.

Personally, any company that is not chomping at the bit to get college students used to their app for cheap so when they hit the market they ask their employer to supply a paid version is insane... Most of the Film production/writing apps dont care if you are a student, they make you pay the $600-$1000 for the app which forces the student to steal the application...

Is it right? no, but the company is not trying to foster good will to the up and coming professionals by telling them to pound sand either.

Re:So uncool

[Maxo-Texas]

The fly in the ointment is that microsoft certainly tolerated and likely promoted piracy of their products until very recently. I suppose now they think they have a lock, or alternatively, they are scared that they are losing their lock, and they want to solidify their position to prevent further shrinkage.

I want my data to be completely portable to anywhere. I own it. I do not like the direction Microsoft is going with regard to MY computer and MY data.

Re:So uncool

[Mister Whirly]

"I have so many customers who are running pirated Windows or Office that it's not even funny. That or they are still running Office 97. If these people had to shell out $250-$400 for Office or $150 for XP Pro, they would switch in to OO and Linux in about the same time it would take to hear that it's free (as in beer)."

I'm not sure that lack of money = technical expertise in Linux. If your theory was true, Linux would own a much larger marketshare than they do now. How much money do you think someone's time is worth? And how much time do you think it would take your average office worker who can barely use Office 97 to learn how to install and use Linux? Seems to me it would still be a lot cheaper in the long run to buy the current software you are already familiar with than to try to re-train everyone on a new operating system...

Re:So uncool

[Maxo-Texas]

Yes. Every time I install Open office it asks for registration information.

In my case, I registered and now tell it that I'm already registered.

OO gets better every release but it still crashes on one of my important (large) personal documents.
I send in a bug report every time. I need to greek the document and then find an OO developer who would be interested in finding out why it is crashing.

Re:So uncool

[Divebus]

That's a very good perspective on how many people's minds work. The FBI warning on DVDs is quite analogous to cartoons issuing platitudes about unpaid software - they'll be ignored. Granted, there are people dumb enough to think this is all free. Warnings won't work unless there's some teeth behind them. Guilt works for some people, others enjoy following authoritarian rules and enforcing them on others but most are completely convinced that no consequence will come out of it. So, I'd say the majority of the people who obtain and use unpaid works (which should be paid) really do know the difference but shrug it off as unenforceable.

Ask any kid if they can copy music and they'll tell you "uhh... yeah" like you're stupid. Ask why they don't buy music and they'll tell you it's free. Frankly, most of them wouldn't buy what they download for free anyway, so what revenue is actually lost? That's a common retort [excuse] for scamming music and software. If that's true, no revenue is actually lost but let a few of them get raided by the RIAA and the word starts getting out. They all know it's not right to capture free music and software and it won't phase them unless the consequences start hitting too close to home.

My [current] father in law knows right from wrong and has bought software before. A recent conversation we had over how QuickBooks can help his small business prompted him to ask if he can "borrow" my copy. I told him he needed to buy it and he looked at me like I was from the moon. It was an uncomfortable moment and he absolutely "got it" but it was clear he didn't see the harm in giving him a copy for free. The deterring event was that he might get caught. Visions of his computer reporting him to the serial number police who drag him out of bed in the middle of the night worked. Suddenly he had no problem paying for his own copy. He knew that up front but it didn't matter unless the specter of consequence became real.

Re:So uncool

[fang2415]

That's not a matter of not needing Windows, that's a matter of someone not needing a desktop PC at all.

I'm still curious why we are still years away from practical products like this.

We aren't.

Re:So uncool

[jZnat]

As it is with all software, would Joe Sixpack rather risk downloading a copy of Windows that contains trojans, rootkits, spyware, or other sorts of menacing software, off of Kazaa, or get a clean, official copy straight from Microsoft for $50? Convenience beats price any time (just look at iTunes Store; they've sold over 2*10^9 songs when you could easily get them on LimeWire (Gnutella) or another network) provided the price is deemed reasonable by Joe Sixpack.

Now I know that the software scene follows strict rules, and any release group that were to release a trojaned/whatevered copy of software would be instantly and permanently ousted from the scene, but that doesn't stop random asshats from infecting a copy and putting it on Kazaa or LimeWire/Gnutella.

Re:So uncool

[cpt kangarooski]

Its not really supposed to be. The idea is to spread the word that its illegal/wrong to infringe on copyright. That way people can't use the "i didnt know" defense.

Ignorance of the law isn't a defense. These sorts of things might have propaganda value that the copyright interests find desirable, but they really don't have any legal weight one way or the other.

Re:So uncool

[TheSpoom]

I make it a point to copy those "you wouldn't steal a purse" ads at the start of DVDs along with the movie. Gotta spread the word, y'know?

Re:So uncool

[Afecks]

I've seen worse. As a kid I got into a lot of trouble so I wound up in a shrink's office. In the waiting room on the table was a Spider-Man comic. Little did I know... It seems this was the tale of a troubled young man that is visited by Spider-Man. During this visit, Spider-Man suspects that the boy has been sexually abused. Spider-Man relates a similar story and admits that as a boy he was molested by an older man named "Skip".

It seems I've found some info on this "Skip" here.

Re:So uncool

[1u3hr]

his argument that a company should lower its prices to discourage stealing is ridiculous. You're saying that because Rolex charges $5k for a watch, then it's OK to steal one.

The OP was making a simple observation of market forces, not morality. And no one is stealing anything. So the Rolex analogy is inflammatory. But kudos for not using the cliched "Mercedes" comparison.

However, I personally think that MS tolerates piracy in less-developed countries as away of securing market share without having to reduce its sticker price and suffering grey-market sales (though there has been some of that). When a market matures, there are millions of people addicted to MS Office, IE, etc who can be pushed into legalising their software at the next upgrade, by applying pressure to their governments (recall Hu Jintao having dinner with Bill last year). P I'm sure Ballmer prefers pirated Windows to legit Linux in any country. Of course, I can't prove this, and they'd never admit it.

Re:So uncool

[NekSnappa]

Seeing as how Steve Jobs had an iPhone attached to a video out source for his keynote demo, and that the device is Bluetooth and WiFi enabled. It might not be so far away after all.

Re:So uncool

[jav1231]

We have to teach our kids that Windows is evil. And I mean inherently. Like kicking a puppy or midgets masturbating to Michael Bolton songs. Okay, it got lost there but you get my point!

Re:So uncool

[AdamKG]

No. The reason to use Free software is not because it is better; the reason to use Free software is because it is free.

That's the theory, at least. I still use the fglrx driver, because it *is* better for my computer (which I purchased in my ignorant pre-FOSS-aware-days). All the same, when I get a new computer, you better believe it's going to have an Intel graphics card, because then I won't have to choose between Free and better.

Re:So uncool

[petermgreen]

right, migration can be (though isn't always) expensive and so legacy systems will provide microsoft with a stream of income for years to come through upgrades expansions etc.

but legacy systems can only keep MS going for so long, they need to maintain a software ecosystem where windows is dominant so that those who can't (due to BSA threats or whatever) pirate software continue to buy thier software.

Re:So uncool

[devnull17]

I'm still curious why we are still years away from practical products like this.

Because people don't want them. It doesn't matter what people need; it's what people want. And whether or not customers are practical about their needs, it's their desires that guide the market.

Most people don't need an SUV that can climb 45 degree mountain slopes in the snow. But it remains a major selling point. Same deal.

Re:So uncool

[nschubach]

Strictly for research, every copy of Windows I've obtained from sources non-MS have had zero communication to any server outside my network. I run a Linux server between the test machine and the 'net and log every packet of data, IP, time, port, etc. Thank you for spreading false truths.

Re:So uncool

[hemorex]

If people always wanted the best instead of the least expensive, then how the hell does Wal-Mart make so much money?

Re:So uncool

[Odiumjunkie]

I might be the most anti-DRM/anti-Intellectual Property person around here, but this argument that a company should lower its prices to discourage stealing is ridiculous. You're saying that because Rolex charges $5k for a watch, then it's OK to steal one.

Ignoring the intrinsic differences between software and physical goods, actually, yes, that argument makes a lot of sense. If it's too expensive for you to buy, then it doesn't matter a damn if you "steal" (copy) it.

People just don't seem to realise that as soon as you can replicate something at 0 cost, a totally different set of morals and laws is needed.

When you steal a watch, you're stealing a physical object that, had you not stolen it, its owner could have exchanged for money. You taking the object precludes them from doing so.

When you copy a piece of softwarefor your own use, you are denying one potential sale to the owner of the software. Then only workable model in which you are taking anything from them is one in which you were going to purchase the software, then don't as a result of having copied it. I'm not saying that this doesn't happen, but starting from the position of it being too expensive for you to afford - then no, it doesn't.

So, logically speaking, if I am not willing or unable to pay $x for "proprietary OS", and my other two options are "pirate copy of proprietary OS" and "FOSS OS", then from the point of view of the software manufacturer, it doesn't matter a damn if I pirate it or use a free alternative. They still get $0. In fact, it's probably slightly better for them that I pirate their OS, because I will learn skills tied to that OS, will be more likely to purchase it in the future if I can at some point afford $x, and will generally promote it to people that I encounter and increase adoption levels of their software.

So, in other words, if you start from the position of "under no circumstances will I purchase software x at price $y", then it really doesn't matter what you do, legal or illegal, with software x. The manufacturer doesn't lose.

I suppose, to use your watch analagy, it's like seeing a rolex watch you like, realising you can't possibly afford one, so then building one yourself, using your own materials at your own cost, to look exactly like the watch you wanted. Has rolex lost a sale? Not if you couldn't possibly afford it in the first place.

Re:So uncool

[arminw]

....Software is simply overpriced......

As with any item of commerce, don't buy it if you cannot or will not afford it. Until someone invents an atomic duplicator, it will always cost considerably more to make a copy of some tangible hardware. Software is a product of mind. All such pure mind products, especially digital ones, are intrinsically easily and inexpensively copied, without any great additional expenditure of money or effort. Acquiring the fruit of someone else's effort, whether that effort is physical or mental, without paying the one putting forth such effort is called stealing. If someone has a kid mow their lawn for an agreed price, and then doesn't pay, that person has stolen from that kid. If a particular kid wants more than you are willing to pay, you can find another one who will do it for a lower price or mow the lawn yourself.

Writing software requires effort and expense. The people who wrote that software deserve to be paid for that effort. Copying software without paying for the mental effort it took to write, IS *STEALING*, morally speaking, and also illegal as in copyright law violation.

Re:So uncool

[Matt Perry]

I'm still curious why we are still years away from practical products like this.

Because the weight of the magnifying glass, needed to view the tiny cell phone screens, is too much.

Re:So uncool

[arminw]

......(which leaves Apple out)......

Apple is NOT competing with MS, at least not in computers. Apple is the only hardware maker who happens to also make their own software. MS is a software maker for others who make hardware. To use a (maybe lame) car analogy: Apple is like a car maker that builds their own engines and transmissions. They are the only ones doing this. The others buy these from a huge drive-train factory. The drive-train factory has never built a car and cannot be compared to an automaker.

Re:So uncool

[hobo sapiens]

Not necessarily. Look at openoffice.org. I'd say that stacks up pretty well against MS Office.

There are some things that are better about MS Office, for example OOo Calc only allows 32767 (gotta love smallint datatype, no?) rows as opposed to Excel's 67xxx. Yes, I know this is a lot of rows and many people don't need this, but at work sometimes I generate large reports for clients and need 50000 or so rows. So OOo Calc would require two worksheets in this scenario. Yes, a minor quibble, but a deficiency none the less.

OOo Writer is, in my opinion, better than Word. Word tries to "help" you by formatting things for you. Trouble is, it's often wrong and instead comes off as intrusive. OOo Writer is much less intrusive. And guess what? I don't need the "help". Turns out I am actually capable of formatting my own documents, thank you very much.

If both cost as much as Office, which would I use? At home, since Excel and Word and the like aren't critical to my life, I'd find something free that did a fair job. You might think this proves that price trumps quality, but I disagree. For example, if you had to make a repair on your car and needed a special tool that you'd likely use just this once, would you buy the budget version or the more durable professional grade tool that costs three times as much? I have the saying 'never, ever, buy cheap tools', but in this case I'd buy the cheapie. Remember, I am someone who doesn't need an Office Suite badly enough to shell out $300 for it. I would imagine that most casual home users are in a similar boat. So I simply wouldn't pay $300 for *any* office suite. Now, if Office and OOo were both free or very modestly priced ($20-$40), well, I'd actually pick OOo over Office.

OOo should pretty well prove that F/OSS can beat proprietary software if it's done right. If that's not good enough, look at Firefox. That's what the F/OSS community should strive for -- not beating proprietary software on cost alone, but on quality too. Anything less undermines the whole open source spirit and concedes that proprietary software is in fact better. The thing I apreciate most about the F/OSS is the concept of "community developed software" being better than proprietary software. It's a can-do mentality, where normal people collaborate to produce good stuff, good work for the sake of good work. That's the way it should be.

Re:So uncool

[LanMan04]

You're saying that because Rolex charges $5k for a watch, then it's OK to steal one.

Or, you can decide to pirate a copy, but please don't justify stealing by presenting yourself as a crusader against high-prices. Wow, you're an idiot.

He's not saying pirating is OK because the price is expensive, he's *MAKING A PREDICTION* that if Microsoft were to lower their prices, less people would pirate their products. That's almost certainly true, morals (which *you* brought up) aside.

Re:So uncool

[arminw]

.....Imagine if said Rolex decided to stop working because for reasons unknown to you it no longer saw you as its rightful owner........

If a physical item, such s a Rolex were as easy and effortless to duplicate as IP, then the makers of Rolex might well incorporate such a "feature". If you hire someone to do some work, mental or physical, would you not pay them the agreed amount? If you do not pay the price for someone's effort and use the fruit of their labor for free, are you not stealing? If your company fails to pay you at the end of the week, have they not stolen from you?

If someone finds a wallet with all ID and money therein, and keeps it for themselves, is that not also theft? If you are the one who lost it, would you not be grateful to the honest person who returned it to you?

Because digital IP is effortlessly copied, the ones who make the effort to produce such, have to take steps to prevent people from stealing it in the same way that merchants make efforts to prevent shoplifting. These efforts cost money and this is reflected in the prices. If there were no stealing, then things like surveillance cameras and DRM would not exist. In the case of DRM, these measures against theft also make for inconvenience and aggravation for the vast majority of honest paying customers.

Re:So uncool

[tjwhaynes]

If from the beginning people didn't pirate windows, home computer use of windows would have been MUCH less. These people would then have not demanded windows for their work computers. I remember it the other way around, when 3.1 came out we practically had to force it on our users. The home pirating began when users were required to submit things in Word and Excel format and they needed to access these documents from home. Before that most people that had computers seemed perfectly content with Lotus and Wordperfect and if not they got a Mac.

It's actually a logical progression.

1. Work forces the employee to use Windows.
2. Therefore the employee needs Windows at home.
3. Therefore the employee takes the Windows install discs home and installs it, because they aren't going to pay for something that Work forces on them.

The rest of it is just inevitability. Employee gets used to all the quirks of Windows through time at work. Employee then expects every application to work along the same lines as Windows, having spent time learning the Windows-way.

That's the double-edged nature of only using one operating system and one set of apps - switching becomes much harder because the user is only aware of one way of doing things. Everything else is different enough to cause initial friction and only the persistent user will work through that learning stage again.

Cheers,
Toby Haynes

Re:So uncool

[jo42]

> tries to pander to the hip or "kewl" crowd, it actually comes off as even more contrived and lame

You mean like the images during the Zune install where one looks like the kid is taking a serious dump?

Re:So uncool

[cloudmaster]

Those warnings are precisely why I make a copy of videos (purchased or rented) before watching them. When I make a copy, I only grab the actual video, skiping over all the menus, previews, and whatever other crap is on there (including that "you wouldn't steal a car or a purse" clip with the dramatic music). It really irritates me when I have to watch all that crap on videos that I purchased for full retail price...

Re:So uncool

[udderly]

I'm truly not trying to be argumentative or snarky, because what you said makes a lot of sense. But you haven't met the these customers. Or for that matter, the other employees with whom I worked at a Fortune 100 before I started my own business.

When I worked for this company, I was a writer in the advertising department, but I spent all of my time doing the following:
- Finding the other employees saved documents for them. This is because they would always save the document in whatever directory the dialog box happened to open to. When I asked them where they saved it, they would say "in Word" or "in Excel" or whatever. To use the search function would have been for them like deciphering hieroglyphics.
- Since they could only open an application if they had an icon on the desktop, I had to replace these icons whenever the Desktop Cleanup Wizard would run because they always clicked whatever the default was.
- Trying to fix spyware/viruses and trying to convince them that clicking "Yes" is a bad idea when Norton says "haxx0r.ownU.exe wants to execute on your computer. Allow?"
- Writing a macro that would take the line breaks out Word documents since they ALWAYS used a hard return at the end of a line, which caused Word to capitalize the first word in every line.
- Convince people that it wasn't necessary to email 30MB artwork files to each other since we had a network. The email had a 1MB limit in attachments.
- Convincing people that it is not necessary to paste a photo into Powerpoint in order to save it.
- etc., etc.

It's really not that much different now, other than I make more money at it. I guess that my point is that being incompetent in Linux is no worse than being incompetent in Windows.

Re:So uncool

[arminw]

....more akin to the hardware world, where price competition is strong.....

Comparing hardware and software is like comparing apples and oranges. Unlike software, hardware is difficult to simply copy for almost free. Apple doesn't need to put DRM or other restrictions on their OS because their hardware and software are made only for each other. If all other computer makers made their own OS software, then DRM would not be needed. There would be competition, but ALL software would cost considerably more. In any market, where there is little competition, prices are higher. However there are other, sometimes more important bases for prices besides competition. Economy of scale is particularly important for IP. It costs a lot to make the first copy and then it is trivial to make more copies after that.

Re:So uncool

[Mister Whirly]

"I guess that my point is that being incompetent in Linux is no worse than being incompetent in Windows."

Ahh, but my point is that most people know at least enough to be incompetent in Windows, while few know enough to be incompetent in Linux. But I do agree - people doing stupid things is a human trait not tied to any specific operating system.

Re:So uncool

[Paulrothrock]

Microsoft can charge what they want for a product and you can decide whether or not to buy it. Or, you can decide to pirate a copy, but please don't justify stealing by presenting yourself as a crusader against high-prices. [by the way, I'm not saying necessarily that I believe using a hacked version of Windows is stealing]

I'd even go so far as to say: If you don't want to pay for Windows, then it's not worth it to steal it. Find a different, free, legal way to get what you want. That way, they can't say "Go after the pirates! They're stealing our stuff!" They'll just have to make a cheaper product.

Re:So uncool

[topical_surfactant]

no IE7, no noncritical updates

So I got curious and poked around a bit...there are registry hacks available now allow you to bypass the current incarnation of WGA. And they work flawlessly. Excellent.

Re:So uncool

[MindStalker]

The discussion was "WHAT IF there was no piracy, or it was impossible to make free copies of Windows"

In such a case I was guessing that you would see more competition and a lowering of prices similar to the hardware world.

Re:So uncool

[jacem]

I don't know if all of these still exist. Sun/solaris SGI hp/hp-ux ibm/aix....

I think it would be clearer to say that the Intel PC is the only computer system that supports multiple O.S. (and before you answer I'm not sure of this either.)

JACEM

Re:So uncool

[daves1800]

The real problem is that I effectively have no choice of operating system on the marketplace. Well, I suppose one could consider Apple a choice, but while trying to avoid flames here, I don't. Realistically, name any major PC manufacturer and try and get a system with a non-windows operating system. I know it can be done, but its *HARD*. Same thing with trying to get a major system with any of the Linux's installed. Note that it seems that even when one is "available" it isn't actually installed.

Re:So uncool

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"Because digital IP is effortlessly copied, the ones who make the effort to produce such, have to take steps to prevent people from stealing it in the same way that merchants make efforts to prevent shoplifting. These efforts cost money and this is reflected in the prices."

The difference between the merchant who uses security cameras and a software company that uses copy restriction is that they protect the store, not the items. The most intrusive scheme you're going to see is that they put some plastic doohickey around the item that has to be removed before you leave the store. If that electric shaver you bought refused to work when you loaned it to a friend, then we'd be able to use this example in a discussion.

In the mean time, these efforts to 'protect' the work are causing increased demand for the pirated copies. When your copy of XP decides your computer has changed too much to be used, suddenly a cracked version of XP is interesting to you. For some oddball reason, this is considered piracy. (It's not THEFT, but that's a different argument.) Microsoft is, in essence, making illegit copies of the software more valuable. In their attempt to secure purchases, they're feeding the enemy.

This is not a smart way to go about it. If their price is so high that the market starts seeking other means to acquire it, that's not solvable by making the software un-copyable. If they were operating in a traditional enoconomy, they'd see fewer sales, so they'd lower the price. Simple supply and demand.

Basic economics doesn't go flying out the window just because of some ridiculous theory that everybody who downloads a cracked copy had originally intended to spend $99.

Re:So uncool

[el americano]

Acquiring the fruit of someone else's effort, whether that effort is physical or mental, without paying the one putting forth such effort is called stealing.

It's called copying in the software case. Many large companies use works that are out of copyright, thus legally appropriating the work of other people without compensating them. Just another case of how this is a different legal construct, not stealing. Still don't get it?

If someone has a kid mow their lawn for an agreed price, and then doesn't pay, that person has stolen from that kid.

No, that's fraud. I think you're just defending your beliefs and are unable to re-examine them. Illegal copying can still be wrong, you need to give up on your "stealing" crusade. Real stealing is more hurtful and should not be minimized.

Re:So uncool

[PopeRatzo]

You make a very good point, Odiumjunkie, but I don't quite agree with the analogy of building something yourself, using your own materials at your own cost is the same as downloading a cracked version of Windows. You're not making anything yourself, you're not using your own materials (it's still Microsoft's work that made the product) but I guess you could say that the cost of your internet connection and disk space (and possibly the black CD onto which you burn it) are at "your own cost".

I guess the point here is that we have to be extremely careful of the analogies we use when talking about Intellectual Property. It may just be that none of the usual models of cost/price, supply/demand, or property rights has any connetion at all to the wonderful worlds of making money from ideas.

I lean quite strongly to severely limiting the artificial value that we place on creativity, ideas, art, and the product of intellect. I don't believe the rights to the product of someone's innovation should be transferable in any way. Not to a family member, not to a corporation.

But I bristle a bit when I hear someone trying to rationalize something that they're not quite sure is ethical. If you've got questions about it, if it makes you wonder if you're doing something wrong, you probably are.

But it makes for an enlightening discussion nonetheless.

Re:So uncool

[merreborn]

Okay. It will need a video chipset to drive at least a 1024x768 display.

Sure. I had a card that could do that in the nineties with 2 meg of VRAM.

At least 256megs of ram.

Why? The stated example involves visiting yahoo.com, amazon.com, and ebay.com. We did all of this in the nineties with 32 meg of ram or less. The fact that you don't need to run a full OS greatly reduces memory usage.

Wifi.

Why? We're talking about a cellphone. It's already got wireless connectivity.

USB controller.

Sure. No problem. They sell these things as single chips for a couple bucks a pop.

Local storage of say 4 gigs minumum. A decent OS. Apps.

Why? Again, the stated example requires no no significant local storage, nor any sort of OS more complicated than your average cell already has, nor any apps beyond the web browser.

We're talking about an internet appliance that differs from a cellphone *only* in that we're adding usable display and input devices. Just about every phone on the market today already has enough RAM, processing power, software, and the OS features necessary for web browsing.

Re:So uncool

[angulion]

Don't know what age they are targeting, but from the text on the comics (swedish), I'd say it is not kids..
I mean, who would think of kids with comics like:
a) "there is no authentic windows sticker on my computer! I cannot get support from MS! waaa"
or
b) "Red: Have you installed the OS yourself? Black: Yupp, I used our volume-licensing program. Red: Volume-licensing only allows upgrades. Black: Oh No! What should I do!!"

This really doesn't sound as targeting kids, now do it?

Seems to me it is just MS "dumbing down" the message.. Already feel Windows itself is degrading me with all its "help" - now the adverts too?

Re:So uncool

[ymenager]

Errmmm... is your post a troll, or you've never heard of the concept on 'Monopoly'

Rolex is not a monopoly, so indeed i don't have to buy their stuff

Microsoft IS a monopoly (one that has been judged guilty of illegally using that monopoly, on top of it), so NO, most people DONT have the choice not to buy it.

If you still don't understand, look at a dictionary

Re:So uncool

[kisielk]

Um, WHY does it need these high specs to accomplish said tasks? Here in Japan, everyone already does all the things listed from their cell phone, and as such many people don't even own PC's simply because it's not necessary.

Re:So uncool

[VirusEqualsVeryYes]

No.

Re:So uncool

[syousef]

If you can afford either the hardware or the software but not both...well to be technical, these people might be able to afford both if they chose not to eat for a couple of weeks. Point is there are a lot of people living just above the poverty line. For them $200 is a big deal - the difference between being able to afford something and not being able to afford it. But then you already knew what he meant didn't you.

Re:So uncool

[syousef]

How much would they have to charge before you walked away?

Look if a person's willing to make a copy to save $300, they might do the right thing if they'd only save $30. It's not worth the effort of the theft. It's therefore less of a temptation. That doesn't make it right for the person to copy the software in either situation but it will make a difference to piracy rates.

Also please stop comparing software to physical goods. You can't make an original Rolex watch for roughly 2 cents now can you? You can get the exact same software on a copied CD/DVD for about that (when done in bulk). It makes very little difference to cost how many copies of a disk MS puts out. However it makes a huge difference to the consumer with regards to affordability. If they could make the same amount of money selling the software at half the cost, exactly what superior set of moral values justifies the decision makers in a company refusing to do so? Is it right to try to bilk individuals while starting charties on the side to make the world a better place. What horse shit.

Re:So uncool

[PopeRatzo]

You're right, LanMan, I've reconsidered. It's OK to copy Windows, and my analogy of the 5k Rolex sucks. I'm still not completely comfortable with the "fewer people will pirate it if the price comes down" argument, but I have to give more thought to the reason why it makes me uncomfortable. Thanks, everyone for helping me think this thing out in public.

Re:So uncool

[rtb61]

You also missed the cost to legitimate owners of software. When the content or program fails to run because of some B$ scheme and it takes you several hours to sort it out, then the company that causes you the lost time should pay the price. Look at M$ failures on WGA and the cost to customers of the failure far exceeded the value of M$ POS software.

M$ totally disregarded any problems they caused the customers in pursuit of their own greed. In fact M$ has managed to introduced some of the worst corporate practices, from fraudulently misrepresenting themselves on forums for marketing purposes, to warranties they should be considered immoral and illegal, to attempting to control the user's use of their on computers and repeatedly lying about failures of the products they produce.

Don't pay the M$ licence fee and whoops watch all your content degraded, until such time as they release yet another patch. This is not content your trying to buy this is legal content your trying to sell without M$ approval and paying the protection racket fees.

M$ demonstrates again and again, that they consider the customer the enemy and given half a chance will continue to charge more and more for less and less. It is about time M$ paid the price for all the costs the end users have incurred as a result of their ignorant and arrogant practices.

Re:So uncool

[Kjella]

Imagine if said Rolex decided to stop working because for reasons unknown to you it no longer saw you as its rightful owner. (...) The result is that stolen Rolexes with that feature removed are going to go up in demand.

Oh, give me a break. Perhaps your conclusion would be right, if the analogy was. WGA is never "gone" from Windows, the WGA cracks are constantly broken with new patches and rarely work for long. The chance it'll wrongfully not recognize you as the owner is infinitely smaller than the chance it'll rightfully not recognize you as the owner. If you've ever met someone who thinks a warezed copy is easier to keep patched than a legit version, he's lying. There's plenty people who have given up and just bought a copy because now they have to have that wiz kid over constantly to "fix" Windows, far more than they've managed to scare away to Mac/Linux. They made running a legit copy a bit more annoying. They made running a warez copy a lot more annoying. Maybe if Mac/Linux take a huge upswing, it might become an issue but as long as people want to run Windows, WGA helps against piracy. Even as much as slashdot doesn't want to admit that.

Re:So uncool

[shutdown -p now]

A big niche is the web browser/email/IM types who just use their computer as a communication device, and this niche is easily filled by Linux.

Not quite. Today, surfing often involves access to streaming media - be it audio or video, but the latter is particularly common now - and Linux desktops are not on par with Windows when it comes to supporting all the proprietary codecs out there (e.g. DRM'ed WMA10).

Re:So uncool

[arminw]

..... If they don't compete why have they made it so difficult to install Microsoft Windows on their hardware?......

Apple has always been different than the rest. ("Think different") There is not much, if anything that MS's new upcoming VISTA will bring to users, which the current OSX does not. Why should Apple make it easy or even possible to run OSX on unspecified, miscellaneous hardware and then get blamed if things DON"T "just work" such as their own products do. Nobody seems to advocate that BMW should allow for and make it easy to put Honda motors into their cars or that there should be a standard drive-train that fits all cars. Why then for computers? The software that runs a computer is what makes it distinctive. Without software, the most beautiful hardware is only a very expensive door-stop.

Apple hardware is high quality, but so is hardware from certain other computer makers and that costs about the same, or in some cases more, than what Apple charges. If you install Windows on an Intel Apple, there is no way to tell at first, that it is NOT just another generic Windows computer. Apple competes with hardware makers. The fact that other hardware makers all use MS software is irrelevant. Apple makes hardware. That is NOT what makes their systems so much better though, but it is the software. They would be extremely foolish to give or sell that to their competitors. They don't need to worry about whether their software will run properly on a zillion different hardware configurations, but can test it all together ONLY on their own machines. It is this integration which makes their system very much superior to the PC/Windows approach. MS has realized this integrated approach with their Zune and Xbox, two "closed" systems, that also, mostly at least, "just work".

Re:So uncool

[arminw]

.....they protect the store, not the items.......

Not really. Nobody is going to walk off with the store, but only with certain desirable items therein. MS and other IP producers know that intrinsically, digital bits are easily copied. This is not possible with physical things. If nobody did this copying of IP then there would be no need to protect it, anymore than there would be a need to protect physical stuff from being taken out of a store without getting paid for, if there were no thieves.

It is sad and unfortunate, that these IP protection measures adversely affect all the honest paying customers. This just a digital symptom of the fact that a few rogue, ill behaved people have a huge negative effect on the vast majority of decent folks. The act of a very few people on 9/11 has had incalculable impact on our freedoms and the world as a whole. It is a fact that the makers of products of mind, such as software, have to protect their work from those who would want to benefit from such work without paying. So far, the means of effecting this protection leave much to be desired.

I don't understand!

[Ythan]

But are they black and white like newspaper comics?

Re:I don't understand!

[GLowder]

Well, they may be black and white, but they'll be red all over.

Re:I don't understand!

[sentientbeing]

Comics?

Is this a joke..?

Re:I don't understand!

[BakaHoushi]

I'd assumed by black and white, they meant "The world is black and white. Downloading anything you don't own is bad. If you download things, you're supporting sodomizing kittens. Who grow up to be terrorists."

Somehow, I doubt these comics will cover some of the more debatable aspects of the issue (for example, downloading clips from a radio broadcast. I don't download the latest Weird Al CD, I buy it. But what about the latest JRock CD that I can't actually buy in America, anyway?).

Re:I don't understand!

[Headcase88]

Ballmer will be too after he realizes that they've spent millions of dollars to craft these comics after it's shown that they have no effect on piracy.

Re:I don't understand!

[Rick17JJ]

If the comics that Microsoft comes out with are not funny enough perhaps other people should try to create their own more amusing alternative comic advertisements. They could be done in a style that is somewhat similar to the comics that Microsoft hands out. They could be a spoof of the Microsoft comics. Of course when doing a spoof they should probably check how to best do that legally.

The comic might start out with an employee of some unmentioned software company lecturing some children about how using pirated software is stealing. He would then ask the children what they would do if they owned a computer and WGA discovered discovered that their were not using a genuine version of Windows Vista and would only let them connect to the Internet for one hour at a time. A young boy might then raise his hand, and say "one hour would be just enough time to download a free copy of Ubuntu Linux. I could stay legal by using free GPL licensed software instead." A young girl might then raise her hand and say something like this. "There are hundreds of properly licenced free Linux programs that you could then easily dowload and easily installed using Synaptic (with a screenshot of Synaptic in the background). It is a complete alternative ecosystem of free GPL software." The first boy might then add that "their is also tons of properly licensed free GPL software for Windows users too. In the final frame of the comic another resposible adult might give this final moral advice (as the disapproving exasperated software company employee looks on). "Don't be a software pirate, if you can't afford to pay for commercial software use the free properly licensed GPL software instead."

Underneath the comic strip it might metion that this comic strip was created with the following properly licensed free software:

• Gimp
• Inkscape
• Scribus

Near the bottom of the comic strip there might also be something about this comic strip having been released under the Creative Commons license. "So feel free copy make copies of this comic stip and share them with your friends at school."

A _real_ feature...

[Anonymous Coward]

Vista's Software Protection Platform (SPP) can put unvalidated copies of the software into a reduced-functionality mode

So you can avoid bloat and annoying requesters by not validating a copy?

Re:A _real_ feature...

[slughead]

Vista's Software Protection Platform (SPP) can put unvalidated copies of the software into a reduced-functionality mode

So you can avoid bloat and annoying requesters by not validating a copy?

No, they reduce functionality by adding "over 300 new innovative desktop productivity solutions that let you do things from browse photos to surf the 'net, with better access to your media through We'reFairlySureItPlaysSomewhere(TM) technology."

Good for them!

[DoofusOfDeath]

Microsoft Launches Comical Effort to Fight Piracy

Awesome! I can see it now. Popeye eating some spinach and tying an octopus' legs around three unshaven guys with eye patches. Brilliant!

Oh, wait... did the OP mean copyright infringement? Then why did the OP use a term that means armed taking of actual property?

Re:Good for them!

[Zonk (troll)]

Oh, wait... did the OP mean copyright infringement? Then why did the OP use a term that means armed taking of actual property? <corporate_asshat>
Because downloading a torrent is exactly the same as attacking a ship, killing it's crew and doing random raping and pillaging. Only dirty hippies that hate America can't see that.
</corporate_asshat>

Copyright infringement != piracy
Copyright infringement != theft
Copyright infringement == Copyright infringement

Doesn't make it right, but be accurate when using a damn word.

Re:Good for them!

[Speare]

Give up the fight, man, the word "pirate" in this usage is hundreds of years old.

There was very little trust in the print medium when it was first developed--it was seen as unstable and subject to piracy and fraudulent copying. Authenticity was hard to guarantee: indeed, the term "piracy" was first used by John Fell, Bishop of Oxford, circa 1675, to describe certain pernicious practices of early printers and booksellers. A "pirate" was someone who participated in the "unauthorized reprinting of a title recognized to belong to someone else." "Stationers" eventually emerged as the trusted practitioners who were placed in charge of various aspects of publishing--practices we would now recognize as printing, publishing, editing, and bookselling. Stationers worked out the conventional practices of making books, and thus made printing a viable economic enterprise with the elaborate complexity of producing a book eventually invisible to all but the practitioners in the trade.

Re:Good for them!

[darjen]

the term "piracy" was first used by John Fell, Bishop of Oxford, circa 1675, to describe certain pernicious practices of early printers and booksellers

That may be the true, but since 1675 pirates have been known mostly as said people described above. I know that personally, the first thoughts that come to mind when I hear the word 'pirate' is not ol' Bishop Fell.

Re:Good for them!

[Bert64]

Actually, copyright infringement is a god given right.
There's nothing in the ten commandments about not duplicating work. It does say thou shalt not steal, but stealing refers to depriving someone else of the item you've stolen, which isn't the case when producing a duplicate.

Copyright is an invention of modern law, intended to stifle the competition which would exist in a free market where anyone can produce duplicate copies of a work. It is so some people can make more money in the short term, while reducing the exposure of their media in the long term (no free copying means it will be distributed far less widely).

When an artist paints a work, how many people produce copies of it, and reprints etc, how many millions of copies of the mona lisa exist? If you want to make money from your work, sell the original, copies should be free for others to produce and distribute for the betterment of society as a whole.

Re:Good for them!

[Merkwurdigeliebe]

Call it bootlegging and call it a day. Well, it's what the hippies called it when they made unauthorized copies of music. So kind of borrow the term and extend its meaning.

Re:Good for them!

[shofutex]

No, I'm pretty sure OP meant that the Pirates of the Indian Ocean also do copyright infringement...

Re:Good for them!

[cliffski]

Surely a more acceptable term than theft is 'freeloading'. That describes what people are doing, because they are taking (for free) something that would not exist if the majority had not paid for it.
Or maybe Leeching.

Re:Good for them!

[aussie_a]

Because downloading a torrent is exactly the same as attacking a ship, killing it's crew and doing random raping and pillaging. Only dirty hippies that hate America can't see that. I take offense to that. Our raping and pillaging is never random. We only ever do it to places we aren't fond of.

An Anonymous Pirate

Re:Good for them!

[aussie_a]

Surely a more acceptable term than theft is 'freeloading'. Sounds like what most Linux users do.

Or maybe Leeching. But I always seed after I download something!

(download Linux ISOs of course ;)).

Re:Good for them!

[madcow_bg]

I say... why don't we call it "using freely the idea somebody thought of, in an unlicensed way?". Or "sharing our possesions with friends and strangers"? That'll look much more like the real thing, don't ya think? After all, we're not stealing the physical medium. And EULAs are not valid contracts in half of the world. All I want is to show how easy would be to start (another) flaming war, when the proper rhetoric is used. If you feel that using unlicensed software and art is stealing, so be it, but please, don't try to force your view of the world on the rest of us. And besides, the legal term is more accurate. Just like libre is better suited for GNU than free.

Re:Good for them!

[davie]

That usage may have appeared circa 1675 describing the activities of unscrupulous publishers, but it was no less hyperbole then than it is now. Fell didn't call these printers "thieves, rapists and murderers" but he deliberately used a term that evoked images of thievery, rape and murder to describe people who were only accused of making copies of others' written words against their wishes. I suspect he did this for the same reason that people do it today, to convey outrage through exaggeration.

The battle against the usage may be tilting at windmills, but there's certainly no harm in pointing out that copyright is a totally arbitrary law and that making a copy of information against the wishes of the original author or his representatives deprives no one of the use of his property and does not result in death, loss of virtue or destruction.

Re:Good for them!

[Maxo-Texas]

English overloads words all the time.
Am I blue when singing the blues in a blue room?

Piracy as a synonym for copyright infringement is well known and has a history decades deep.

Besides... english is also like alice in wonderland. English words mean exactly what we want them to mean- no more and no less.

Re:Good for them!

[a.d.trick]

Did it ever occur to you that a word might have more than one meaning? It's pretty similar to what we call overloading in Computer Science. When we talk about noses running, it's obviously not the same as when athletes are running. Indeed, it would take a special kind of retard to think that we think the two are conceptually the same.*

* Excluding ESL people. They are often very intelligent, but learning a language is terribly difficult, particularly since most people teaching English these days is nowhere near qualified.

Re:Good for them!

[cliffski]

oh please. I'm not trying to force anything on anyone. 99% of the world know that taking something that doesn't belong to you, thats priced, without paying, is wrong. If you are determined to stay in the 1%, then that's up to you, but don't expect the other 99% of us to consider you anything other than a freeloader.

Re:Good for them!

[darjen]

English overloads words all the time. Am I blue when singing the blues in a blue room? Piracy as a synonym for copyright infringement is well known and has a history decades deep. Besides... english is also like alice in wonderland. English words mean exactly what we want them to mean- no more and no less.

The point isn't that english overloads work. It's what people think of most when they hear the term pirate, despite other uses of the word that may exist. The raping, pillaging, treasure hunting people that sailed the carribean is probably the most used meaning of the word in today's English. I'd bet if there was a poll it would agree. Perhaps it's unfortunate that the term used for copyright infringement is the same one as the one used to describe these people. No doubt a successful association technique used by wealthy copyright holders.

Re:Good for them!

[shark72]

"Copyright infringement != piracy"

I agree 100% that many of us find it distasteful to use this word, but to claim that it does not have this meaning is, frankly, tilting at windmills.

The word "piracy" is an example of a homonym, or as some call it, a homophone. Type "dict piracy" into your Firefox toolbar (we're all running Firefox, right?) to get the following definition:

"2. the unauthorized reproduction or use of a copyrighted book, recording, television program, patented invention, trademarked product, etc.: The record industry is beset with piracy."

We're all smart enough not to confuse dogs and trees when we hear the word "bark," so it's disingenuous to suddenly pretend to be homonym-challenged.

Another common bit of misinformation is that this is some sort of new meaning of the word. Not so; it shows up in court rulings from the 19th century, and if you're lucky enough to have an OED around, it'll tell you a lot more about the etymology.

Again: you may find the definition distasteful. But there's no point in claiming that the definition does not exist.

Re:Good for them!

[cpt kangarooski]

Actually, the OED has an example of 'pirate' used in this meaning that dates back to 1603. Worth keeping in mind is that copyright as we know it wasn't invented until about a century later.

Re:Good for them!

[mrcdeckard]

I'm sure this has been talked over a zillion times, but i have some questions about the issue.

is copyright infringement when party B makes copies of content that party A produced, and then proceeds to market it as if they (party B) are the rightful owners/creators?

that is, wasn't copyright put into place to protect companies from other *companies* (and "businessmen") stealing their IP?

i guess it's a matter of *licensing*. if i download the new metallica song (from p2p), i don't have a license to listen to it. i have a hard time understanding the legality of this in the private sector. the only license i really understand is my driver's license. i suppose it works the same, really, for IP.

i wonder what the fine is for driving without a license, and how that compares to the RIAA lawsuits . . .

the only people (like 2) that i've met who really believe that it's wrong to download music AND whom actually *don't* do it see the issue totally in terms of material possession. they can't conceptually differentiate between a cd and mp3.

something to think about: record labels' biggest costs are distribution and promotion. so when i buy a cd, i'm paying for the promotion and distribution behind it -- not so much the creation of the content (the artist is responsible for that).

i think the labels (and society) is just beginning to come to terms with the issues. i'm still unclear on a lot of them. but i do know that a future with strong IP law is a dystopian one. i think it's one of the top issues of our time.

mr c

Re:Good for them!

[twms2h]

Only dirty hippies that hate America can't see that.

You forgot to call them communists and terrorists who want to destroy the American way of life and the freedom of - em - the free world.

Re:Good for them!

[madcow_bg]

It is kind of funny, but I am one of the users with most licensed software on my computer. Granted I mainly use Gentoo, I have an XP with paid license on the laptop, and my office is The Open one.

Anyway, I don't believe that people think of themselves as criminals. You must note that LAW makes the criminals, and if the law is such that 90% of the people are, they can overthrow it.

The reality is that even though the law is not in favor of the ordinary bootlegers (read: citizens) on this matter, the lawsuits are so rare and unsuccessful (when not plain stupid), that people mostly just ignore them. And although people infringe copyright frequently, most of them want to stop doing it if they have a chance and money (USA and most of Europe is an exception in the income part, you know).

I am fully for the use of licensed software, because I believe that this would be a big push for open source. However, it is not going to happen anytime soon.

Re:Good for them!

[shark72]

"that is, wasn't copyright put into place to protect companies from other *companies* (and "businessmen") stealing their IP?"

If you're genuinely interested in learning about the history of copyright law, googling on "history of copyright law" will get you started. Many folks point to the Statue of Anne as the first copyright law. It was enacted to protect writers from their publishers.

"something to think about: record labels' biggest costs are distribution and promotion. so when i buy a cd, i'm paying for the promotion and distribution behind it -- not so much the creation of the content (the artist is responsible for that)."

Interesting that you you know people who can't distinguish between a CD and an MP3, and at the same time you state that the artist is responsible for the creation of the content of a CD. Unfortunately there's also a world of difference between a sheet of tabs and lyrics, and a song that's been recorded, engineered, and mastered. Whether we like it or not, production costs are a significant piece of the pie for all but the best-selling CDs. At any rate, your statement is correct for lots of stuff; milk, designer clothes; computer hardware, and so on. "CoS > CoP" is one of the tenets of supply chain economics.

"i think the labels (and society) is just beginning to come to terms with the issues. i'm still unclear on a lot of them. but i do know that a future with strong IP law is a dystopian one. i think it's one of the top issues of our time."

I disagree. If I want to see a movie or listen to some music, I rent it from Netflix, or buy it on the iTMS. If I don't... I don't. The great thing about copyright is that you can opt out to certain degrees (see the GPL, Creative Commons, etc.) and it's not a requirement of copyright that you sell the material. Prices are market-driven; if you think there are enough people who think that a buck a track is too much, then that's a golden opportunity for you to go into the business of helping artists sell their work for $0.50 a track. The market will find a balance; if there's a demand for free content, and there are enough talented people who are willing to spend the time creating work and giving it away for free, then it will exist. But as long as people keep wanting to, say, buy music from major labels at a buck a track, then it will be an uphill battle. It's one thing to say "music is overpriced" but it's another thing to serve a demand that may not exist.

Re:Good for them!

[Maxo-Texas]

No man.

I was there in the early 80's when this was all getting started and I'm certain that the title was selfchosen by the pirates themselves.

Re:Good for them!

[mrcdeckard]

I disagree. If I want to see a movie or listen to some music, I rent it from Netflix, or buy it on the iTMS. If I don't... I don't. The great thing about copyright is that you can opt out to certain degrees (see the GPL, Creative Commons, etc.) and it's not a requirement of copyright that you sell the material. Prices are market-driven; if you think there are enough people who think that a buck a track is too much, then that's a golden opportunity for you to go into the business of helping artists sell their work for $0.50 a track. The market will find a balance; if there's a demand for free content, and there are enough talented people who are willing to spend the time creating work and giving it away for free, then it will exist. But as long as people keep wanting to, say, buy music from major labels at a buck a track, then it will be an uphill battle. It's one thing to say "music is overpriced" but it's another thing to serve a demand that may not exist.

realistically, you're probably (and hopefully) right. i, like a lot of people, i'm sure, worry about our culture spiraling into a "corporate feudalism" state. i understand the viewpoint that the market will dictate a solution, but what happens when a monopoly can effectively control the market? this is where IP can look like a bad thing, and makes me think of a world where we, as people, have no choice to swallow the content the IP holder, without being able to appropriate or reuse it in any way. this seems to me dystopian. more and more our environment (esp. if you live in a city, like most people) IS the content of the media. not being able to react and interact with your environment seems very orwellian.

thanks for info on the copyright stuff, i'll look into it.

mr c

Re:Good for them!

[Bert64]

To put it another way...
Is god suing everyone for reproducing and distributing copies of his ten commandments?

Re:Good for them!

[karlm]

Pirates were a real threat back in the 1600s. They were the terrorists of the day.

"Book terrorists! Book terrorists! A vote against this bill is a vote for the terrorists!"

Maybe we should start calling price fixing "price terrorism" or installing rootkits "system terrorism".

Trojan.

[Prysorra]

On week number 26, the comic itself is the anti-piracy platform.

What MS doesn't tell you, wont hurt you ;)

Children Must Be Educated

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree with Microsoft's campaign here. Piracy is rampant with kids nowadays, and they should be educated that downloading or illegaly copying software is wrong, and deprives hard working people of money that they should have been theirs.

I understand slashdot tolerates and even condones piracy, but it is illegal and kids should know they risk the punishment of law enforcement if they get caught.

Re:Children Must Be Educated

[robcfg]

I agree that children must be educated, but companies keep rising the prices using piracy as an excuse. I agree it's illegal, but it should be illegal too that a copy of Windows XP Home costs over 300 (I've seen it, really) and on your back they sell it for less than 50 to the big companies making PC's. Nobody's going to pay half of the money the computer itself costs for the operating system.

Re:Children Must Be Educated

[GravelordBocephus]

There's a big difference between being educated, and being educated by Microsoft. Educated would be "it's against the law to infringe copyright". Microsoft's so-called education would probably be "large corporations have the natural right to the ideas produced by their employees, it's perfectly acceptable to cripple software and mandate constant surveillance to make sure that your copy of Windows BS is completely above the board, trusted computing is only to protect content creators and only denies access to your computer you don't really need anyway..." and so on and so forth.
Microsoft educating children about copyright makes about as much sense as letting wolves teach sheep about nutrition.

Re:Children Must Be Educated

[Yfrwlf]

Share information with your friends and family, don't let monopolies stay that way, ideas should be free, help improve technology not only for the rich but for the poor too (which means FOSS, but still, pirate for the sake of the poor)! :)

Re:Children Must Be Educated

[ElleyKitten]

Share information with your friends and family, don't let monopolies stay that way, ideas should be free, help improve technology not only for the rich but for the poor too (which means FOSS, but still, pirate for the sake of the poor)! :)

Pirating doesn't help the poor. Piracy just gives large companies an "excuse" to raise prices and take on draconian anti-piracy measures. Using FOSS shows that there is a alternative that will *always* be free.

Re:Children Must Be Educated

[LandruBek]

You are confusing piracy and copyright infringement.

Re:Children Must Be Educated

[Anonymous Coward]

WhoTF modded this as funny ??

Re:Children Must Be Educated

[Yfrwlf]

Agreed, but copyrights and patents should still go to hell. :)

So lon as they respect my right ...

[quiberon2]

So ling as they respect my right to rnu my Linux, or OS/2, or FreeBSD, or ..., on any hardware I can get it to run on, then I have no problem with whatever they might want to do with their Windows.

I might well go to the expense of buying a Playstation 3, just to demonstrate that I have an alternative.

Re:So lon as they respect my right ...

[91degrees]

I might well go to the expense of buying a Playstation 3, just to demonstrate that I have an alternative.

And to demonstrate I have an alternative, I'll go for the cheaper option of not buying anything:)

Re:So lon as they respect my right ...

[pipatron]

Rather don't. Since the Playstation 3 is from SONY, who are even more trigger-happy when it comes to DRM and artificial restrictions than Microsoft, you would still support it.

Re:So lon as they respect my right ...

[limit]

Congratulations on getting it to run on your toaster. Next time you might want to try something with more keys.

Re:So lon as they respect my right ...

[Habrok]

But they're selling at a loss, don't they? So by buying a PS3 you can screw both MS and Sony. It's a win-win really.

Re:So lon as they respect my right ...

[MooUK]

So's the 360, no?

And either way, MS/Sony/whoever may make a loss but unless you go out and buy games, eliminating their loss, you've made a bigger loss.

Re:So lon as they respect my right ...

[Krakhan]

True, but you would screw them over even more if you don't buy the PS3 in the first place.

I find it funny that Sony is trying something the equivalent of the razors and blades model.. Only the razor is so expensive that although they are selling it at a loss, most people find it too expensive for the benefit it gives.

Don't Copy that Floppy!

[Anonymous Coward]

hmmm, a hip and cool campaign where the message is anti-piracy? I don't think it's EVER been tried before!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4837609090 332617729

Re:Don't Copy that Floppy!

[Farmer Tim]

That campaign was a roaring success: you don't see anyone copying floppies now, do you?

The kids will dig it

[Anonymous Coward]

OMG LOLZ! cOMICZ ... FREAKIN AWeSOME NOW I FINALLY REALIZE i MUST PAY FOR mY SOFTWARE, OMG LOLZ!!!!!!!!!!!111111

Re:The kids will dig it

[PoconoPCDoctor]

OMG LOLZ! cOMICZ ... FREAKIN AWeSOME NOW I FINALLY REALIZE i MUST PAY FOR mY SOFTWARE, OMG LOLZ!!!!!!!!!!!111111

I used to read comic books to escape from reality. The idea of comic books teaching children ethical behavior is pretty lame.

My take on this topic, is pretty simple.

1. Company produces product legally under the laws of the country.
2. Company charges $xxx.xx for product.
3. Company has a right to stop people from using the product unless they pay $xxx.xx.
4. What don't you understand about that?
5. OMG, FReaKIN AWEsome, I DON't WAnt to be EVIL!!!

Okay, maybe number five will never happen. Some kids think that "stealing" stuff is a cool thing to do during a certain phase in their life, being a rebel, rage against the machine, etc. You are forgiven. Go and sin no more. The linux mirrors are waiting for you to put you forever on the path to righteousness.

BTW, I'm attending the Vista launch this Thursday and will get a free copy of Office 2007 for listening to the ways of the Microsoft Jedi Knights- maybe Bill is seeing the light after all!

Please note - all of the above was written under the influence of Dayquil, and may not make any sense to those of you not similarly chemically altered.

Balanced Reporting

[mulhollandj]

No bias in this headline.

Only in B&W?

[kaufmanmoore]

C'mon Bill, you can afford to at least make it look like the Sunday comics.

Typo in Headline

[shadowknot]

The headline should read: "Microsoft Launches Comical Effort to Fight Privacy"

Easy enough mistake to make.

Re:Typo in Headline

[croto]

Actually you didn't catch another typo. It should read: "Microsoft Launches Sad Effort to Fight Privacy". Now it's fixed!

Re:In other news...

[Aladrin]

I read the wikipedia link, but it's not clear... Did he create those little 4" x 2" pamphlets you used to see in every restaurant that had a bright single-color front, and explain different aspects of Christianity? I used to read those as a kid and found them both entertaining and educational, even as someone who wasn't really Christian. (My parents had tried to drag us to a Methodist church for a while. They eventually gave up. I never really figured out why.)

I've seen a few of these pamphlets again recently, and ones that I had not read before. They weren't quite the same style, so I doubt they were the same artist.

Canada is one step ahead of them

[Donniedarkness]

Anyone else remember [URL=http://www.captaincopyright.ca/]Captain Copyright?[/URL]

I don't see how he changed anything.

Well, they're changing the site around, but [URL=http://www.midtimod.dk/blog/index.php?/archiv es/594-Captain-Copyright.html]this site[/URL] has one of the comics up.

Re:Canada is one step ahead of them

[Easy2RememberNick]

Ah Ha! I was just thinking about that but I couldn't remember where I saw it. I knew it was from here (Canada) but other than that I couldn't remember... either that or I blocked it from my memory.

  (btw you're using phpBB forum type tags to submit the links, you have to use actual HTML etc... here on Slashdot)

  Captain Copyright

  Yeah this guy at this link you submitted is using the same name:

  Captain Copyright

  Is Captain Copyright copyrighted? lmao

Re:Canada is one step ahead of them

[Jesus_666]

We clearly need our own lame superhero comics to edumaculate people about things like privacy and fair use rights.

I can see it already: Private Privacy is a WWII war hero who fights for peace and freedom... of information.
The Commando Line is a group of elite soldiers who defeat their foes by piping vital information through grep and sed.
The Backup Referee protects not only fair play but also fair use.

And of course... The Linux Foundation is our alternative to the various Justice Leagues etc. Staffed with heroes like Stall Man and Commander Taco this secret organization fights the evils of closed source and, er, operating systems that aren't Linux. Also, unlike a certain other foundation, they don't put David Hasselhoff into a Cylon car.

Re:Canada is one step ahead of them

[poticlin]

After reading the Captain Copyright comic strip I can't help but think about,this version of the story

Student A Buys original books (fully priced from the campus store). 125$
Student B buys it at the cheap photocopy store (a.k.a. Piracy store). 15$

Student A studies all night on an empty stomach (can't afford to buy a good meal)
Student B Sutdies all night after eating a good meal. Goes to the library to photocopy the missing pages.

Student A gets a "B-" still feels weak from poor nutrition
Student B gets an "A" ready for next semester, passes on the photocopied book with the missing (photocopied) pages to a fellow student

Re:In other news...

[Aladrin]

lol Crap, I somehow missed the links in that article to examples. Yeah, they are the same ones. Interesting.

Reduced functionality

[Threni]

How is the average user going to know if they have been placed in `reduced functionality mode`, or are simply experiencing the usual inability to shut down their PC (yes, even on XP), virus attacks, confusing USB installation (do I install the hardware first and then the drivers, or the drivers first, or plug the hardware in and see what happens, or what, exactly?), games juddering and freezing (presumably updating my file indexes or checking for updates is so important that the flippers in my pinball game can take up to half a second to respond) etc?

Re:Reduced functionality

[91degrees]

How is the average user going to know if they have been placed in `reduced functionality mode`,

The "Welcome to Windows Vista" message should be your first clue.

(Yes. I know it's a linux nerd comment! It's a joke dammit!)

Maybe it's just me..

[zyl0x]

By using comics, the company aims to make the message more accessible to a broader audience.

I don't thinkthe Swedes are really classified as a "broader audience".

It ain't over yet

[Dekortage]

From the article: "The antipiracy fight is a multimillion-dollar effort, Hartje said. Although it has been going on for some time, Microsoft can't say whether the fight is paying off. 'This is a multi-inning game. We're in the first inning and it is too early to tell what the long-term impact will be,' she said."

This is the first inning? C'mon, pirated software was online (BBSs) in the 1980s, if not earlier, and even then I could buy illegally-copied software from semi-shady PC hobby stores. Forget "don't copy that floppy" -- how about "don't copy that data cassette" or "this software download will take 16 hours on your 1200 baud modem, assuming your housemates don't pick up the phone and disrupt the signal".

Nah, it's more like double-death overtime, and Microsoft is losing.

Re:It ain't over yet

[painQuin]

Nah, it's more like double-death overtime, and Microsoft is losing.

I don't mean to be overly picky (ok maybe I do) but if it's overtime, aren't the teams usually tied? I don't know sports particularly well, but...

Re:It ain't over yet

[Dekortage]

"if it's overtime, aren't the teams usually tied?"

That's exactly what I mean. MS and the pirates are tied, but in this round of overtime, MS seems to be losing. They'll catch up, then the pirates will pull ahead, and back and forth.

Re:It ain't over yet

[AndroidCat]

Depending on where you were, the first inning was "software stores" with copies of Apple ][ and IBM PC diskettes for "evaluation purposes". They existed for a few years in Canada until it was determined that the copyright laws extended to ones and zeros on computer disks as well as printed material.

Re:In other news...

[udderly]

I noticed in the Wikipedia article that Jack Chick is part of the King-James-Only Movement. I agree with them since everyone knows that the KJV is the bible translation that Jesus used.

I've heard of this...

[staticdaze]

can put unvalidated copies of the software into a reduced-functionality mode Why is this news? This has been done for a while; it's called crippleware. Microsoft just seems to have implemented their own version of it, which will probably suffer the same fate as all other protection mechanisms.

Re:I've heard of this...

[jayp00001]

The difference is that SPP diables your OS 3 days after changing out your hardware. Crippleware only affects your apps

Give us more than ONE FREAKIN KEY

[PrescriptionWarning]

Paying 200-300 bucks for a personal installation of windows for only ONE computer is incredibly lame. That may have been fine back in the days of Windows 95 when most households only had one computer because they commonly cost an average of 1500-2000 dollars. Nowadays they are going for less than 500, so it seems more common for families to have 2 or even 3 PCS. Why charge nearly 1000 dollars so they can all "upgrade" for a single house? If they ever expect to sell Vista in the magnitude they desire and get the software behind it in a reasonable timeframe, they NEED to include at least 3 personal keys for each $300 vista license, otherwise they'll have to wait for people to replace their PCs with storebought Vista computers.

Of course after saying all that, vista upgrades will be so uncommon, buying a new PC will be pretty much the only guaranteed way most people will have Vista at all. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Re:Give us more than ONE FREAKIN KEY

[soft_guy]

This is precisely why Apple makes MacOS X, iLife, and iWork available in family packs that cost only marginally more.

Re:Give us more than ONE FREAKIN KEY

[zdzichu]

Microsoft Vista Family Pack. Buy one Ultimate and get next licenses for $50 or $100.

Re:Give us more than ONE FREAKIN KEY

[Anonymous Coward]

Paying 200-300 bucks for a personal installation of windows for only ONE computer is incredibly lame. You're right, but why would you do that? Windows Home OEM costs about 100$.

Re:Give us more than ONE FREAKIN KEY

[Joe The Dragon]

That less than $500 system is unlikely to run vista fully and may be very slow at it. So that may make people install xp on it and get the key form online, there older systems, work, and so on.

Re:Give us more than ONE FREAKIN KEY

[Overzeetop]

So you have to buy one at double the price ($400 Ultimate version retail purchase required, OEM doesn't qualify), then you get the $200 version for half price ($100) on the rest of the families computers. Oooooh, what a bargain.

Re:Give us more than ONE FREAKIN KEY

[Technician]

Why charge nearly 1000 dollars so they can all "upgrade" for a single house?

A simple site license would be fine. MS office was a couple hundred dollars a copy a few years ago. Novel's Star office was less than a hundred dollars and came with a home site license. Needless to say, I ran Star Office at home for a while until Open Office became better and replaced it.

In keeping the budget balanced and avoiding piracy, many people find alternatives with better terms. We have more than 1 PC. A single PC license is to be avoided if at all possible. This requirement alone has introduced me to Free Open Software as an affordable replacement to the by each PC a copy model.

The latest casualty is Light Factory. They went from a Registeration name model to a single PC locked registration. In the process, it broke the hot spare for a live performance. I upgraded to Freestyler in its place.

Is free software the only ones who get a SOHO network and a cheap site license?

Re:Give us more than ONE FREAKIN KEY

[fotbr]

It pays off for some people.

Re:Give us more than ONE FREAKIN KEY

[RzUpAnmsCwrds]

Paying 200-300 bucks for a personal installation of windows for only ONE computer is incredibly lame.

That's why you buy the OEM version - Vista Home Premium OEM, for example, is $129 from Amazon.

Give us more than ONE FREAKIN KEY

Microsoft has just such a program - buy an upgrade or full retail copy of Vista Ultimate and you can buy additional licenses (up to 4) of Vista Home Premium for $49 each.

Re:Give us more than ONE FREAKIN KEY

[Grimbleton]

And you can get Media Center Edition, which is essentially Pro+, for $15-20 more, like I did.

Re:Give us more than ONE FREAKIN KEY

[Technician]

sorry to be correcting you, but MS Office still does cost a few hundred bucks, and second, last time I checked, Star/Open Office is under Sun Microsystems, not Novell

I wish I had nice mod points to give you for that one. I haven't used StarOffice in several years. I just dug out the box. You are right. It is Sun Microsystems StarOffice Version 5.2. The price is still on the box. I paid 34.99 for it and it came with a home site license.

Too boot, out of the box it runs on Windows, Solaris, and Linux. On the back of the box it lists it's features next to MS Office 2000 Standard Edition. Both have a Word Processor, Spread Sheet, Presentation, E-mail, and web support. In addition StarOffice has a drawing application, Database, Integrated Desktop, Value Pricing, and free upgrades.

For home use, there was no longer any need for a high priced office suite for each PC. It opens Windows documents just fine.

Editor fueling

[nstlgc]

BTW, Vista's Software Protection Platform (SPP) can put unvalidated copies of the software into a reduced-functionality mode.
What, there wasn't enough flamebait in the editorial? Needed to add something to make it, well, Slashdot-worthy?

Nothing like picking a sureshot argument that has relatively little to do with the actual article.

Newspaper-style

[Rob T Firefly]

What this means is these strips won't be funny either. "Look, everyone! Cathy still can't fit into a bathing suit, Garfield pulled on Odie's tongue again, and stealing from Microsoft is wrong."

Re:Newspaper-style

[Farmer Tim]

I think "newspaper-style" was added to the word comic so nobody would confuse it with the stand-up variety.

Redundant really, since Microsoft's anti-piracy schemes have never stood up...

Sorry, but there is a lot of history to this usage

[p3d0]

I had the same pet peeve until I learned that the use of the term "piracy" in this way dates back centuries. I can't find a reference now, but I know I've read essays from the 18th century using the term in this manner.

Piracy for the Poor

[Yfrwlf]

I think I'll launch a campaign called that, aimed at teaching that sharing ideas, while giving competition (oh noes!) to large corporations, is good for the world and especially the poor. You aren't forced to pay for the use of math, and neither should you be for ideas which can be freely shared. Greed is what makes people not want to share that which is freely shareable. It may be difficult to share REAL property, but it is not difficult to share ideas which should be no ones property! Fuck patents and fuck copyrights. Let the space age begin already!! Patents hold the world back from advancing in technology. The industrial revolution was set back at least 20 years because of the steam engine patent! FUCK THAT, where's my holodeck! Let pure competition occur and free the ideas! Make companies have to come up with NEW technology to stay ahead of competition!

Re:Piracy for the Poor

[Krakhan]

Okay, so what about companies that hoard all the patents they can get, and then abuse them like IBM and Microsoft do, with litigation, and getting money out of the small guy anyways via something like cross-licensing?

Re:Piracy for the Poor

[Yfrwlf]

Yeah, anyone can come up with new ideas, what's your point? Someone thinks up something useful for everyone and everyone benefits, oh no! It's people like you who think "it's MY IDEA, MINE, no one can use it but ME, give me MONEY!" who should go to hell. No offense. :) You've been sadly drilled with the "intellectual property" concept, one that monopolies love to tout as being ethically important. No, being ethical would be not throwing a fit if someone uses your idea and does it better. That's called advancement of technology. You must have been living under a rock, because the big monopolies get that way from buying up patents and competition. If no idea was "owned", EVERYONE would have equal opportunity to compete and technology would advance much more rapidly instead of being held in a legal death grip until the law expires.

Consumers like you: "Oh big monopolies, please continue to control all new technology so that we have to pay a fortune for it and people can't actually use it or develop upon it until much later. Thank you for slowly sucking our bank accounts dry and slowing the advancement of technology." It's sad that most consumers are blind to this, all they can see are the prices in front of their face and not the much lower prices that *could* be there, the new technology that *could* exist, all that is invisible to them yet they continue to bend over for big corporations. It's time to take back our technology and get out of this stone age of monopolistic corporate rule and I'm trying to help it happen. ;)

What is "genuine" software?

[milo_a_wagner]

For me, the most interesting thing about all this is Microsoft's strangely stipulative definition of "genuine."

This is all put better than I could do it here. I think this has been discussed before, but it's worth revisiting.

By making pirate copies of Vista run in reduced-functionality mode, it seems as though Microsoft is moving back toward the generally accepted definition.

Re:Balanced Reporting - bias bias lol

[soupforare]

Slashdot. No, that's unfair.
Internet. hmm, that's not quite right, either.
Journalism. !
Humanity. ?

Corporate Propaganda

[Metathias]

I just got through watching the first episode up on microsoft's web site. I just love how randall mentions that the site where all this WAREZ he found by reading a BLOG. With all the all the ganda going on in government around political blogging it's no surprise that corporations have decided to attack as well.Is it just me or does randall kinda look like a young mitnick? People need to let microsoft know this sort of blatant ganda does not go unrecognized. Im just wondering where they are gonna be presenting this crap? A corporate conference near you? Schools? Local best buy training centers? Next thing were gonna start seeing is computer oriented versions of Blood on the Highway. Goes something like "Thats right timmy. So the next time you are thinking about pirating music or software. You might as well be putting a gun to a developer or musicians head. So unless you wanna kill dont be a PIRATE!"

Re:Corporate Propaganda

[Anomalyst]

> . You might as well be putting a gun to a developer or musicians head. So unless you wanna kill dont be a PIRATE!"

The PUPPIES! Don't forget the sad-eyed puppies left to starve, uncared for by their deceased masters. The kittens, of course, get what they deserve.

History repeats itself

[UnknowingFool]

Remember when some soccer moms were up in arms about music lyrics? The result: all CDs with questionable lyrics got slapped with a little label. And that drove the kids to them. Nothing like saying to a child that they can't have something to make them more curious about it and want to try it.

What is interesting to me...

[HairyCanary]

... is that they think the issue is education. Everyone I know of that pirates software does it quite knowingly. Even my parents, who are 60-70 years old, are fully aware that they are running pirated copies of Windows.

Does Microsoft (and along the same lines, the RIAA, MPAA, etc) believe education is really the problem? I think it's just marketing to justify the draconian measures (DRM and the like) that they want to use to control as much of our daily lives as they can get away with. If it were really about piracy they'd just correct their business model.

Re:What is interesting to me...

[zakezuke]

Does Microsoft (and along the same lines, the RIAA, MPAA, etc) believe education is really the problem?

I'm sure education is part of the problem. The 50+ crowd does think if they buy one copy of microsoft office for $500, then they can also install that copy on their other computer, their children's machine, their grandkids machine. "It's ok I bought a copy".

From a business perspective, this makes sense. Inform these casual pirates who actually do pay money for software they need to pay more money for more machines. The real pirates, the ones who don't shell out a dime for software, why spend money on those people who don't provide an income.

I've taken exception with the WGA... the fact of the matter is from a user perspective... while I actually do "own" copies of windows, i'm much better off with a pirate cracked edition than the *real deal*. For example... motherboard failure... backups. "This might be a counterfeit edition".

Re:What is interesting to me...

[RzUpAnmsCwrds]

Everyone I know of that pirates software does it quite knowingly.

You don't know very many people, then. There are a lot of people who have been sold pirated Windows by disreputable system builders. That's the entire point of WGA and "How to Tell" - a dedicated enough pirate will always bypass it, but someone who doesn't know that their copy of Windows is illegal will probably be asking their OEM a few pointed questions.

Is WGA a pain in the ass? Absolutely. But so are product keys, activation, and all of the other antipiracy methods used in the past. If they bother you, you are welcome to use a version of Windows without activation (Windows 2000), or, perhaps better yet, another OS altogether. But, clearly, most people aren't bugged enough to care.

I can say, however, that WGA is a huge pain in the ass to pirates in Vista. There's always a good chance that a new patch will update WGA and deauthorize your computer, at which time you have 30 days to either crack WGA again or buy a legal copy.

I can also say that I have never seen WGA trigger on a legal copy of Windows. That's not to say that it doesn't happen, but it seems to be quite rare. A lot of the people I see complaining are using "borrowed" corporate keys.

A Window On Their Soul

[CmdrGravy]

"Get the genuine facts campaign"

Are non genuine facts still facts or are they lies ?

It seems Microsofts understanding of the word fact is something which optionally may or not be true which leads me to believe that they are not someone I'm going to be trusting as far as I can throw them.

Is the fact that these is a genuine facts they are presenting us with a genuine fact or its self or is it one of those other not genuine, or partially genuine facts ? Who can tell.

The important question

[thesandtiger]

Are they in black and white or color? Newspaper or graphic novel style? Oh, how I wish someone would tell me because neither the summary nor the quote from the article say!

Also, I'd like to know - what style are they in? And are they in color? Im asking because I couldn't tell from the article, and I don't think it said so in the summary.

Modding me "redundant" will just make this funnier to me.

It's COPYRIGHT MAN!

[Greyfox]

Fighting for Truth! Justice! And the American Way! Bravely defending the giant multi-billion dollar mega-corporations from the Evil Average Citizens! Watch as Copyright Man destroys lives! Breaks up families! Ruins Reputations! In defense of the the Good CEO's multi-million dollar BONUS! Copyright Man will insure that his master is able to afford his 14th house in Hawaii! Copyright Man will defend The Company's fleet of private jets! COPYRIGHT MAN!

In this episode, Copyright Man puts the hurts on a little girl with leukemia, her puppy and her elderly Grandmother...

Crippleware activation death

[hal2814]

"Vista's Software Protection Platform (SPP) can put unvalidated copies of the software into a reduced-functionality mode."

I think they may be learning. With flat out product activation you may be inclined to just go with another OS. I've put Linux on one of my desktop computers for the first time since about 2000 because I don't have a spare copy of Windows and (not that I'd do that sort of thing anyways) using the same copy of Windows XP for 2 PCs is an activation nightmare waiting to happen. If crippleware would keep me afloat enough to play some video files, then I may not have a Linux box in my living room. Granted Microsoft wouldn't make money on this either way, but they'd keep someone from potentially learning they can live with another OS with reasonable crippleware on Windows.

Hire the pro Microsoft!

[AndroidCat]

If you're going to make b&w comix warning of the evils and sins of "piracy", and eventual but certain punishment in a short booklet format, then there's only one man for the job!

I realize that hiring Jack Chick could be tricky, but I'm sure that the right arguments will succeed.

Same old

[gx5000]

I couldn't agree more with most of the comments here today (a rarity)

Another foolish attempt at free Advertising.......uh wait...

Anyways, there are enough peeps that avoid *any* obstacles and would rather pay through
the nose to avoid having to even install a ATI Vid update, and this is where all this Vista stuff comes in. I shudder at the thought of all my evening clients surprising me with Vista on their PC's next time they call me in for a fix...

The Comic I'm sure is just another easy swing and pitch reminder that they're still working on making it tough on potential (Vista/mp3/avi/mpg/best friend's sister's bra hooks) hackers.

After the third week of release to the public, when the European (or whatever) hacker community releases a completely defanged Vista, we'll see how many peeps with already Pirated XP go for it. Seems no one remembers that the REAL Reason Win95 made big was because it became the most pirated OS of all time, locking in thousands if not millions of peeps in Microsoft's clutches at work, on their second PC's, and on their original PC's right after going to confession. Even a dealer knows the first taste has to be free.

This Cat and Mouse DRM and cripple ware drama is just that...Publicity Drama...**yawn**

Cheers
--
End of Line.

Great idea!

[Jesus_666]

If they let Steve Ballmer sing a song about copying and show it to little children the children will grow up so utterly scared of him that they will never copy even legitimate files, ever.

Anbody have a torrent?

[Anonymous Coward]

omg I gotta see these comix. anybody have a torrent?

Didn't stop Joe Camel

[Merkwurdigeliebe]

So, perhaps it depends on other factors.. but that idiotic camel seemd to have brought many a teenager into that cancer-inducing habit quite successfully using "cartoons" or in the least a cartoonish character...

Re:Didn't stop Joe Camel

[Pojut]

Kids don't smoke because some cartoon named "Mr. Camel Smoking Guy on a Box" tells them to. They smoke for the same reasons adults do; it's a stiumlant and certain brands taste damn good (not saying they SMELL good, saying they TASTE good...to quote Bill Hicks, "It's a shame it's that second hand smoke that smells, the shit we're suckin' down is fantastic!"

In other news...

[vagabond_gr]

unauthorized copies of Microsoft's new Anti-Piracy comics just appeared in various BitTorrent trackers.

Channelling Jack Chick?

[eugene_roux]

Am I the only one who immediately had the name Jack Chick pop up in my mind when I read this?

I immediately started imaging Microsoft portraying "pirates" as evil devil-worshipping spawns of Satan, preferably in little pamphlets which could be inserted into iPod boxes (we all know only pirates buy iPods, don't we?) by concerned shop owners...

Erm, yes, I lived through the vilification of D&D during the eighties, why do you ask?

Wow...

[crossmr]

I'm half way in and so far, they've made blogs look evil, and given the villain a nice communist background, and of course they're perpetuating the scary myth that every download is laden with viruses, spyware, and heroin. When the news stories were drawing comparisons between this and other comics, they forgot to mention Jack Chick. I wonder if Microsoft hired him to write for them.

Re:Sorry, but there is a lot of history to this us

[91degrees]

Agreed. The only time I ever see any attempt to correlate the two concepts is people complainign on Slashdot, or occasionally as a joke (I saw a cartoon where they attacked a pirate video on the high seas).

Honestly, the media companies don't want copyright infringers to be compared with pirates. Pirates have been romanticised for well over a century.

You got the key point

[Lonewolf666]

Maybe if piracy wasn't so easy, more people would be forced to move to another operating system like Linux. Instead, people decide that it's easier to steal.

So far, piracy is easier than learning to use Linux/BSD/whatever. But what if Microsoft succeeds in making it hard?
I think they would gain some new customers among the lazy and wealthy(who would finally pony up the license fees), but at the same time the poor but smart would prefer to put in the effort to move. As a result, revenue would rise at the expense of market share.

So Microsoft has a little dilemma here ;-)

Boy Scouts and Computers Merit Badge

[querist]

Background: I am a Unit Commissioner with the local Boy Scouts and I have a Ph.D. in Computer Information Systems (Security and AI), so I am teaching the Computers Merit Badge classes at our local "Merit Badge College".

In Boy Scouts, you have to do all of the numbered requirements. (Some are "Do three of these" and list, for example, A-H sub-requirements).

Requirement 9 (the January 2006 revision) has three mandatory sub-sections.

(paraphrased - I don't have the exact text)

A. If a friend offers you a copy of a game or a software package, is it legal to accept it?
B. When is it legal to download music from the Internet and when is it illegal?
C. Why do Copyright laws exist?

I know this has been discussed many months ago, but I felt that it was appropriate to mention it again since it shows Microsoft's reach and influence.

Re:Boy Scouts and Computers Merit Badge

[wes33]

C. Why do Copyright laws exist?

I'm curious what the BS think is the right answer to C.
Is it:
"to protect the artist's property" [WRONG]
or is it:
"a temporary monopoly - a bad thing but here a necessary evil - granted to promote arts and sciences".
Just wondering.

Re:Boy Scouts and Computers Merit Badge

[querist]

Well, I did not look for the "official" answer :-)

My answer, and I am not trying to start a flame-war here, is sort of a combination of both of yours.

I believe that artists, authors, etc. should be compensated for their work if they so choose. To that end, copyright allows those creative efforts to be rewarded in a free market environment (e.g. if you ask for $2000 for a piece of junk, no-one will buy it) and provides legal protection to help protect the creators of those works. This exists to encourage more creative work and also to provide legal protection for proper attribution of the work. In other words, you cannot simply take a hit song (for example), re-record it and claim that you wrote it. Beside being morally wrong it is also illegal.

I believe that the current term of a copyright in the USA is excessive and is being abused. The original length was appropriate, and I have several works that, under the old system, have fallen into the "public domain". I am OK with that, since that was "part of the deal" with the copyright office.

Again, you may not agree with all of these points, but I was the one asked to teach the class. I respect your right to disagree, and since I am not an attorney this is only my opinion. I tried to keep it balanced between fair use and protecting "intellectual property" (without using that term). Again, I feel that artists and other creative efforts should be rewarded in a manner that a free market would support. You are free to give away your works, and I mentioned some bands that place some of their songs on their web sites for free to encourage purchase of albums and attendance at concerts.

Re:Boy Scouts and Computers Merit Badge

[GravelordBocephus]

A) Clearly it's legal, because he has the right of first sale, and can give his copy to anybody he wants to.

Re:Boy Scouts and Computers Merit Badge

[Ash-Fox]

Just for fun, I'm going to answer these.

A. If a friend offers you a copy of a game or a software package, is it legal to accept it?

Yes, unless it comes under restrictive licensing.

B. When is it legal to download music from the Internet and when is it illegal?

It's legal when you get the consent of the copyright holder.

C. Why do Copyright laws exist?

Well, they were granted by the US constitution originally to inspire artists to continue creating works. But over the many years that have passed, changes which I consider unconstitutional have been granted that work in the opposite direction of this (extending copyrights lengths, preventing people from fair rights usage to create new works etc). Thus allowing a very select few of large businesses to keep a strong monopoly on media. These large companies are the reason why these particular copyright laws exist today.

I'm curious, would I be graded badly?

Re:Boy Scouts and Computers Merit Badge

[gknoy]

A. If a friend offers you a copy of a game or a software package, is it legal to accept it?
B. When is it legal to download music from the Internet and when is it illegal?
C. Why do Copyright laws exist?

I think it's a good thing that these questions are being asked. A large part of my experience in the Scouts involved discussing ethical decisions, learning what the legal way to do things were, etc. (E.g., the legal liabilities one might bring upon oneself if attempting CPR.) It's as much about being an educated and conscientious citizen as anything.

these questions give a Scout an option to spout the "party line", true -- but remember that their peers and advisors may be as geeky as we are. Scouts will also have the option to (and may be encouraged by advisors to seek out):
- learn what IS legal, so that they may choose to do that
- understand the controversies, so that they may understand why not everyone does it
- learn about copyright, what it is intended for, and how it's currently being used as a cudgel by bug media.

I imagine that it would be very healthy to ask candidates for the merit badge about "edge cases" -- things where "No copies!" isn't always the answer. E.g., free/open source software, or ask them about what the doctrine of first sale means.

- is it legal to give (or sell) someone YOUR copy of a CD/DVD (and some would say software)? [yes]
- is it legal to give (or sell) a COPY of your copy if a copyrighted work? Usually not, unless it's distributed under creative commons, GPL, or has a licensing agreement that allows further distribution.

Scouting, ostensibly, teaches one to be obedient, etc - but more than anything, it is an opportunity to teach one to THINK about issues, and make good decisions.

Office costs $129 bucks, AVG is free for non-com

[Anonymous Coward]

You can get the "Student and Teacher" edition of MS Office 2003 for about $129, and it even lets you install it on three computers in your home at the same time. Same functionality as all the other versions. The only drawback is that there is no upgrade priced version. For Office 2007 this is now called the "Home and Student" suite. The 2007 version includes Word 2007, Excel 2007, Powerpoint 2007 and Office OneNote 2007, it has an MSRP of $149.

AVG Antivirus is free for non-commercial use.

SIGNATURE EDITION!!!!

[battery111]

perhaps a bit off topic, but take a look at this: http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Ultimate-N umbered-Signature/dp/B000M2WPIQ/sr=1-2/qid=1169476 621/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/102-5235946-3553706?ie=UTF8&s= software Signed by Bill Gates himself. If this is real, it is quite possibly one of the most comical things I have ever seen microsoft produce since BOB http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_bob

Re:SIGNATURE EDITION!!!!

[Anonymous Cowled]

A copy of Vista "Signed by Bill Gates himself"? Damn - I'll be looking for the torrent of that... I mean, that's got to be a collectors edition!!

Thanks

[d_54321]

Thanks for a link to a comic strip in Swedish. Anybody know where I can find a version translated into English?

Re:In other news...

[kalirion]

Parent isn't off topic. Jack Chick is known for his propaganda comics, albeit his are of a fanatic religious nature.

Very anti-Blog

[forgotten_my_nick]

Is it just me or did the interview and the cartoon seem to be suggesting that people stay away from blogs?

I mean seriously, who posts pirated stuff on blogs? I thought it was all peer to peer these days?

Only other thing I discovered from the cartoon is that if a chubby guy called Randall sucking on a chocolate bar like it was a wang comes up to your desk odds on your going to be fired.

Them are fighting words

[BillGatesLoveChild]

> Vista's Software Protection Platform (SPP) can put unvalidated copies of the software into a reduced-functionality mode

You mean it can get worse? :-o

Re:Office costs $129 bucks ONLY for students

[peragrin]

That is the teacher/student edition. if you are no longer a student you are not allowed to continue to use that software and must purchase a new license. read the EULA sometime. My roommate can buy windows XP and Photoshop cheap, but it is illegal for me to own a copy of that very same software.

Comics cool?

[Per Abrahamsen]

I thought nobody under 30 read comics anymore, especially in the US. And that the only way comics got a wide recognition these days were through movie and television adaption.

Re:Comics cool?

[TigerPlish]

I thought nobody under 30 read comics anymore, especially in the US. And that the only way comics got a wide recognition these days were through movie and television adaption.

Speak for yourself, I'm a bit past 30 and I enjoy comics. Okkay, manga. I've been so out of the loop with the US comic thing I dunno which way is up regarding those. I can only take so many 'reboots' and 'retcons'.

But don't kid yourself, there's a sizable contingent of post-30-ish people who enjoy comics and cartoons (manga / anime too.)

Of course, I'd *hope* such people would be able to spot a shill comic as easily as they can spot a legit, from-the-heart work.

Re:Comics cool?

[Skater]

I think you misread - he said no one UNDER 30 reads comics. :)

Re:Comics cool?

[TigerPlish]

*glares at his obviously defective coffee*

Why, right you are. And now, back to our previously-scheduled Monday wake-up session...

Re:Comics cool?

[Steve001]

Per Abrahamsen wrote:

I thought nobody under 30 read comics anymore, especially in the US. And that the only way comics got a wide recognition these days were through movie and television adaption.

I'm one of the individuals over 30 who still reads comics (I've been reading them since 1975). One of my reasons is that I find the stories are often better than what I find at the movies or on television.

One of the factors that is increasing the readership base is the expansion of genres: comics are now more than just superheroes. As an example, one series I read is "Y - The Last Man." Its set in a world where every mammal with a Y chromosome suddenly died, except for one man and a monkey he was training.

Returning to the topic of the article, while I think that while software piracy was a factor in the adoption of MS Office as the standard, another factor was the introduction of Windows itself. It seems like many programs had difficulty making the transition from DOS to Windows. For example, I tried to use Wordperfect for Windows 5.1, and disliked it so much that I ended up returning to the DOS version.

Re:Comics cool?

[celery stalk]

At first read, I thought you were referring to "comics" to mean the comics section of most newspapers. Those _I_ read (age 25), and would assume they are still popular with all age groups. However, as I read the replies, it seems you likely meant what are also referred to as "comic books."

If that is so, I believe you might be correct.

Ferrets For Copyright Justice

[Garrett Fox]

And what about the Play It Cyber-Safe campaign by the Business Software Alliance? Here a hip anthro-ferret offers kids a "Cyber Ethics Champion Code" and a game in which he battles the evil forces of copyright infringement. "Stop the pirates from freezing the city. Throw your ball into the pirates and their stolen software before they hit the ground."

Re:In other news...

[Ninjaesque One]

They changed style, because, I think, Chick got a heart attack or a stroke or some thingagummy. They're drawn by some friend now, but Chick still does the writing. I'm surprised, however; Chick is notorious as an asstard who confuses DnD with satanic rituals.

Re:Piracy as an old term for copyright infringemt

[retrosteve]

...and the usage continued well into the 19th century too.

Gilbert & Sullivan wrote "Pirates of Penzance" in 1879, inspired by the copyright "Pirates" in New York who had come to watch their London performances of their previous show (HMS Pinafore) and then "ripped" the words and music and performed something very similar in New York a short time later.

Without paying royalties of course.

In fact, to avoid "Pirates" itself being pirated, G&S took the trouble to perform it FIRST in New York (they both travelled there personally -- and travelling trans-Atlantic was only by slow boat in those days) and establish ownership and royalty channels, before sailing back home to London to premiere it there.

Meh

[Dobeln]

"Pirating" has been the term in general use for, well, ever. I used to "pirate" = "piratkopiera" ST games back in the day from my friends.

Re:Office costs $129 bucks ONLY for students

[MysteriousPreacher]

Sign up for a distance course with Liberty University. They sure as hell won't expect you to do much work anyway so you'll get to have cheap software and become a Doctor of Creation Science.

They got me at least

[Dobeln]

The shutdown feature will probably make me paying for a legit copy eventually, provided the pirates don't manage to disable it in a reliable manner. Once my trusty pirated XP is no longer good enough (through forced upgrade moves like DX10, etc.) I will probably splurge on a copy (most likely when I build my next comp - OEM pricing). Linux? Not good enough for basic gaming. Might get a mac though.

It takes a criminal to enforce the law

[MrData]

How ironic !

A criminal organization lecturing us about obeying the law.

I've got some comics for them...

[darkvizier]

http://www.kmfms.com/

For every Microsoft poster I see, I'm stapling two of these nearby!

1994 called - wants its security feature back

[MCRocker]

Software Protection Platform (SPP) can put unvalidated copies of the software into a reduced-functionality mode.

It's called a sandbox.

Microsoft is finally catching up to circa 1995 security. Too bad it has more to do with protecting software 'assets' than with some semblance of actual user security through digitally signed software.

VISTA = Disincentive

[BoRegardless]

1. Hard Drive Hog
2. Hardware intensive (new Hardware req'd)
3. Reduced functionality mode (if & when something craps out)
4. Limited ability to load on new hard drives for backup or in case of other failures/upgrages

I just have to wonder if Microsoft may have to turn VISTA into FOSS?

They earn their money off of the wholesale price as sold to the box makers and that is it. You download your extra copies for free.

If they are going to compete in the long run against Unix/Linux, that may be their only choice UNLESS...

Microsoft could start their own PC Box Company, and come up with a tricky catchy name like MicroBox.

Then they could go head to head against Apple.

Re:VISTA = Disincentive

[Yvan256]

1. It would probably be better for them to control all the hardware, just like Apple (thus making Windows more stable)
2. It would destroy (even if only partially) the market for single parts (motherboards, etc)
3. Destroying (if only partially) the market for single parts means it's more difficult to build your own box and put OSS on it, thus lowering the OSS threat
4. They've already started, with the Xbox, Xbox 360 and Zune.
5. Profits!

Re:Software costs out of hand

[Ash-Fox]

Can't she get the software free? When I was attending the local universities here, I could get free copies of Windows, Office etc. any Microsoft product I wanted -- It was legitimate.

"Comical" != "Comic-style"

[Fjan11]

I watched the whole movie and there wasn't a single funny thing in there. The design reminds of newspaper comics. But "comic style" is not the same as "comical".

Re:"Comical" != "Comic-style"

[mgiuca]

Er, maybe you just have a dull sense of humour, but there clearly WAS a joke in there.

• Evil dude: What're you doing? Updating your online dating profile?
• IT dude: Funny.

You see!? Funny!

Re:"Comical" != "Comic-style"

[PhxBlue]

Oh, it's comical alright ... just not the way they think.

Let your mind fill in the blanks.

[mgiuca]

Man, did you see that guy? He's just ... so ... evil! Can't ... resist ... piracy!!!

Er, ok I'm bored. When I'm bored watching a film, my mind just starts making stuff up. For instance:

• Evil dude: Ordering? Why bother?
• IT dude: What are you talking about?
• Evil dude: Man... you don't have to pay for software. It's free on the web.
• Evil dude: You just have to know... where to look.
• Large text overlay: www.ubuntu.com
• ...
• IT dude: But what about viruses? Or trojans?
• Evil dude: Well that's the great thing: you won't have to put up with them anymore!

But I think my favourite part would have to be (once my mind got back on track to the fact that he was actually installing Windows):

• Screen: CRITICAL ERROR! Virus detected. CRITICAL ERROR! Trojan horse detected. CRITICAL ERROR! Spyware detected.
• IT dude: WHAT THE!?!! Randall, what's going on? RANDALL!!??
• Evil dude: Bwahahaha... you're using .... WINDOWS!!!

My final thought as this bland and childish crap fizzled across my screen was: Which operating system was this company running such that a single installation of a cracked update caused the entire company network to come down to a catastrophic failure, which not only caused downtime but also caused data to be destroyed and stolen?

It didn't have to end this way!

Re:Let your mind fill in the blanks.

[ToriaUru]

The "Evil Eye" comes to watch... and wait. MWHaaa.... he knows when you have the 'wrong' software installed.... and pounces. MWHaaaa. :) Good points!

Re:Piracy as an old term for copyright infringemt

[retrosteve]

...wow, the story's even more complex than I remembered. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirates_of_penzance for details.

Note that most of the biggest copyright "pirates" at the time were of course the Americans. Who didn't ratify the already-existing Berne Convention until 110 years later, in 1989.

Microsoft has no worries from me

[jridley]

They've already taken the most effective possible anti-piracy method they could with Vista. They made it such a piece of crud that I wouldn't pick it up off the ground except to get it into a proper waste container.
Seriously, I wouldn't put it on my machine if they were paying me to do it. I am running Windows, but they haven't put anything in Windows that I care about since W2K.

The article itself is comical

[symbolic]

Also, legitimate Microsoft resellers are affected by piracy and, in some cases, pirated software has been modified and could hurt users, she added.

Hurt users? Like the plethora of security flaws that have cost both consumers and business untold amounts? Or were they referring to something else?

Re:(Reminded of) Reduced competition

[ToriaUru]

From http://blogs.chron.com/techblog/archives/2006/10/m ay_i_see_your.html/this blog... Let's call it WGA Plus, shall we? The Plus means this software, which is baked into Windows Vista, is even more aggressive about detecting and blocking what it considers software that is running with unauthorized license keys or has been tampered with. And woe be unto you if you get snagged in the WGA - sorry, SPP dragnet while running Vista. If that happens on a premium version of Windows Vista, you'll first lose access to key features, including the Aero interface, ReadyBoost performance enhancements and Windows Defender anti-spyware detection. Eventually, if you don't deal with the problem, the measures get more severe and you're kicked into "reduced functionality mode": Reduced functionality mode in Windows Vista will allow the user to use the browser after the reduced functionality mode has begun. Reduced functionality mode can occur as a result of failed product activation or of that copy being identified as counterfeit or non-genuine. In most cases customers will be able to correct this situation quickly with the options provided. With the tools in place for OEMs, and small to large customers, we expect that most customers should never be affected by having a non-genuine installation. Microsoft denies that this is a "kill switch" for Windows Vista, even giving it a separate question and answer in its mock interview announcing the program. Technically, they're right, I suppose. Switching a PC into a degraded functionality where all you can do is browse the Internet doesn't kill it; but it's arguably a near-death experience. Certainly, Microsoft has the right to protect itself from piracy, but this is the kind of thing that it had better get right, given how dire the consequences would be for its customers if it gets it wrong. Unfortunately, that's not been the history of WGA so far. Doesn't sound too promising to me..honestly.

Re:Office costs $129 bucks ONLY for students

[Bryansix]

They can't expect people to pay for a whole new license for their software when they cease being a student. What even defines a student? For Student loan companies it means that you were an active student anytime in the past six months or have only missed one semester or quarter. Is this defined in the EULA? What about people who graduate go get a job for a few years and then go back to school again? Do they have to stop using the software during that time. Microsoft has their heads up their asses with this one! 100% of people who buy software at student discounts will continue to use them until something better comes along.

Comical effort? I know what their inspiration was

[master_p]

Perhaps they were inspired by this?

or this?

Re:Office costs $129 bucks ONLY for students

[redcaboodle]

I actually got my version for free from the M$ Academic Program. I may continue to use it after I leave uni, but I will not get new versions.

Sounds fair, doesn't it?

Windows 2000-2003Server, Visual Studio, Visio and a couple more programs.

The german Win XP Version was fubar, though. It wouldn't install .NET, Java or Visual Studio. Had to reinstall the old version I had - Gift horse, I guess.

Here is what is funny...

[PenguinBoyDave]

Microsoft tries to fight piracy to protect THEIR product, and they are called evil. If Red Hat did that with some of their proprietary software, we'd have a bunch of people here telling us how this is the best thing since sliced bread.

Proposed Comic

[jav1231]

"This is VistaMan, kids! If suspects you have pirated software he'll shut off your video card, cripple the OS, and send you a nastygram! If it turns out you really didn't you can have JUST enough OS back to send an email to Microsoft, plead your case, and get your expensive computer back!"

DCTF

[SuperJew]

Why don't they just bring back
"Don't Copy that Floppy"?

CLASSIC anti-piracy propaganda!

Re:Piracy as an old term for copyright infringemt

[cpt kangarooski]

And? Frankly, we never should've signed on to Berne. It's a huge pile of shit. That said, I don't think that the protectionist policies we had way back in the 19th century were a good idea either; we should unilaterally grant everyone national treatment. But there should not be any minimum standards internationally. If one country wants to not have copyrights, then that's a perfectly valid option. Each country should decide whether copyrights generally, and what copyright policy in specific, is best for them.

evangelical

[micromuncher]

Anyone ever see those evangelical right wing christian comic books strategically left behind on bus seats?

Seems Microsoft is taking a page from the Jack Chick line of - hey - it sounds rational - but you'll burn in hell...

Black Hats will take care of it.

[g2devi]

Personally, I'd be surprised if someone didn't write a "make your software appear pirated and put a pop-up that says 'you won't be in this mess if you used product X'" virus that forces all crippleware to go into reduced functionality mode and endorses a product.

Agreed, I don't think this feature will become too popular. It's just too tempting a target for the black hats if it does.

Re:In other news...

[seven of five]

pooh! I'm glad someone gets the joke...

Stay legal, use free GPL licensed software instead

[Rick17JJ]

Don't be a software pirate, stay legal and properly licensed by using the various free open source GPL licensed programs instead that are also available in Windows versions. Many of the best free GPL licensed open source programs which have been developed for Linux users have also been released in Windows versions. Not everyone is ready yet to move from Windows to a free GPL licensed alternative such as Ubuntu Linux. For them, a first step to freedom would be to keep on using a properly licensed copy of Windows, but to start using the various free GPL licensed alternatives to their various favorite programs. Someday, if they decide to move to a totally free operating system such as Linux they will then be able to use the Linux versions of those same programs. There is now an amazingly large complete alternative free software ecosystem of free GPL licenced software legally available for free to everyone.

Here are just a few examples of free (mostly GPL licensed) programs which are also available in Windows versions:

• OpenOffice the free office suite
• Mozilla Firefox web browser
• Thunderbird email program
• Clamwin free antivirus
• Gimp image mainpulation program for photo retouching and image composition
• ImageMagick software suite to create, edit, and compose bitmap images
• Inkscape open source scalable vector graphics editor
• PuTTY: A Free Telnet/SSH Client
• FTP client and server
• 7-Zip file archiver which can handle compression formats such as 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR
• Scribus open source page layout application
• AbiWord the free word processing program
• Gnumeric the free spreadsheet program
• Stellarium free open source planetarium
• Celestia free space simulation and space exploration program

I don't adovocate stealing intellectual property..

[windowpain]

But the little comic book-like video says that by using authentic software "You get: The assurance that your IT infrastructure is clean and stable"

Oh really? Who provides that assurance? Certainly not Microsoft. I don't recall ever seeing any MS product (or any piece of software, for that matter) that isn't sold without a warranty including the implied warranty of merchantability. In other words the EULA plainly states the software is completely worthless and that by clicking through, you agree with the manufacturer that the software is completely worthless and that you are surrendering your right to sue them if the software destroys your computer, blows up you house and kills your family etc. etc.

Like I said, I don't advocate stealing intellectual property but turning in criminals who copy and distribute what a manufacturer publicly declares is worthless crap is waaaaay down on my list of wrongs to right.

Most 'comical' part?

[Perey]

So I browsed from TFA to the Microsoft website's piracy section. Yeah, all the misinformation about how piracy is hurting our culture, EULAs are necessary, and FOSS is bad ("Imagine if anything you thought, made, or distributed could be legally reproduced and freely given away by others") is amusing, in a worrying-that-people-will-believe-this way. But my favourite part is this: Worldwide Piracy Sites.

Microsoft posting links to "worldwide piracy sites"? Who the hell came up with the title for this page? Hilarious.

Actually, now that I browse deeper, this kind of ambiguity is rampant. Piracy basics. Software Piracy resources. Maybe they're trying to get Google hits — when someone searches for information on how to pirate things, they instead get Microsoft's 'don't do it!' spiel and decide not to!

Re:Office costs $129 bucks ONLY for students

[arminw]

......My roommate can buy windows XP and Photoshop cheap, but it is illegal for me to own a copy of that very same software......

Since when does somebody's (even MS) EULA have the force of law? The LAW says that you friend can buy anything (not otherwise illegal in itself) he wishes and sell that to anyone else for any price he wants. That includes software. The "A" in EULA stands for "Agreement". It takes at least two entities to make such. Clicking a mouse or ripping a package does NOT mean anyone is agreeing to something. An agreement also must have a witness attesting to the identity of the persons agreeing and to the agreement they are making. In our culture they call such witnesses a notary public.

reduced functionality?

[roc97007]

About Vista putting applications in a reduced functionality mode, doesn't XP already do that? I've seen Windows Automatic Update break my Media Center, my workstation and my daughter's laptop. This week, Internet Explorer (version 6) has, for unknown reasons, suddenly started taking a minute and a half to load Yahoo, vs less than 5 seconds for Firefox.

Seems to me that Windows has been "putting applications in reduced functionality mode" for a very long time. I think the only difference is that with Vista they'd be doing it intentionally.

Ron

Self Reference

[Flwyd]

Will Microsoft prosecute me if I distribute copies of these cartoons without permission?

PDA

[nurb432]

Sounds like a PDA to me.. external keyboards exist today.

Good to something good from MS...

[owidder]

... after all that Zune and WGA etc. stuff. See my small cartoon: http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2007/01 /ballmers_tip_of_1.html Bye, Oliver

Microsoft to fight piracy through comics

[David Gerard]

THE BUNKER, Redmond, Monday (UnSlash) -- Microsoft is expanding its fight against software piracy with a new educational effort that includes comics. The online campaign, set to start on Monday, is meant to tell people the benefits of using properly licensed software.

Dubbed "Genuine Fact Files," Microsoft plans to draw attention to it through banner ads on its Web sites and promotional material that it will hand out through partners.

The campaign is designed to degrade the comic if viewed by unlicensed readers. Legitimate verified licensed users of Vista with Aero will see it in three-dimensional High Definition at 1080×600 at 80 frames per second. Legitimate verified users of Windows XP will see it in two-dimensional 640×480 at 30 frames per second. People attempting to read it on a Macintosh will see 160×120 double-sized "chunky" black and white pixel art at ten frames per second, and users trying to view it on Linux will automatically be reported to local law enforcement.

Microsoft has escalated its effort to combat piracy since mid-2005. Windows XP now checks your license key against Microsoft's database each login. Windows Vista requires a retina scan before enabling high-end features, and the forthcoming Windows Blackcomb will require a blood sample each time you log on.

Microsoft tried to enlist Disney to its anti-piracy efforts, but this was vetoed for some reason by Disney board member and single largest shareholder Steve Jobs. "HAHAHAHAHAHAHA," Jobs was reported to have reacted to the suggestion. "Bill, you kill me," he said, looking forward to the next time he visited the Gates for dinner.

While some of the measures have irked some users, Microsoft says such steps are justified because piracy is rampant and hurting its sales. Linux users fired up their copies of AIGLX and Looking Glass, with fast 3-D rotating graphics, running two to six times as fast as similar effects on Vista on one-third the CPU, and laughed and laughed and laughed, looking forward to the next few years.

Come on!

[Per Abrahamsen]

Someone below 30 please respond and disprove my assertion. And for bonus, please explain how all your non-geek friends below 30 also read comics. I love comics, and don't want to be right in my claim that the art form for practical purposes is dead among the young generation in the US.

Trabant-Microsoft automobile unveiled

[David Gerard]

MUSTELASBURG, Deutsche Demokratische Republik, Monday (Neues Deutschland) -- Microsoft and Trabant have unveiled a complete new software system for car drivers. The "Sink" platform, introduced at the Mustelasburg auto show, will be available in over 12 Trabant vehicles this year.

The agreement is part of a constant quest by Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, for fresh vistas beyond the office supply market it dominates. Trabant, meanwhile, hopes that new technology will help it solve the problem of dwindling market share even in its home German market. "The market potential is absolutely enormous," said Markus Fields, Trabant's president for the DDR. The Trabant Langeshorn promises to be "an experience like no other."

Microsoft is bringing its expertise to bear on all aspects of the new Trabant Langeshorn:

* Improved compatibility with the original motor-tricycle version of the Trabant, while maintaining at least its level of crash safety. Not that the Trabant Langeshorn crashes.
* The two cylinders of the two-stroke engine will be doubled in size, shortening the 0 to 100 km/h time to three hours and forty minutes, half what it was in previous models.
* A colouring agent ("Aero") will be added to the exhaust, to accurately recreate the vapour trail of the twenty-first century flying car those people in the West are supposed to have by now.
* The phenolic reinforced plastic body will be doubled in thickness for added crash protection. Not that the Trabant Langeshorn crashes.
* Other "Aero" enhancements in the Trabant Langeshorn include pink alloy wheels, a musical horn playing "Die Internationale" and a metre-high spoiler.

"The thrust of our new model of car is to make it more attractive to Trabant owners," said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO. "Any Trabant driver knows Ferrari owners are just losers with penis-size issues and that their market share is insignificant. Ferrari just keeps proving over and over that it can't come out with a popularly priced Trabant-like model."

Microsoft expected its marketing muscle to go far in this new market battle. "Just imagine the joy a Ferrari mechanic will feel when they finally get to work on a market leader with industry muscle behind it like the Trabant."

Re:BBCode?

[zerocool^]

Nope. I've been posting here since 1999, and it's always been sandbox HTML. Used to be much less of a sandbox, too, with all the PWP's (page widening posts), ascii penis birds, etc.

Anyway, BBCode is something new. I remember the first time I ran across a BBCode webpage, and I was like... "WTF. How hard is it to write a link in HTML? This is exactly as complicated, but now those of us who learned HTML so we could make our geocities pages in 1996 have to learn some random other way to do it".

BBCode needs to die, people need to use HTML.

~W

why does the link go to the swedish site?

[mike3]

How about you start in India or china where you need to worry about pirating?

Re:Stay legal, use free GPL licensed software inst

[Danse]

Don't be a software pirate, stay legal and properly licensed by using the various free open source GPL licensed programs instead that are also available in Windows versions.

The main thing that would help Linux at this point would be a FOSS implementation of DirectX 10. Since that won't happen, windows will be the primary platform for entertainment software, which FOSS either can't, or isn't inclined to compete with.

It isn't a bad thing

[Rix]

When people think of pirates, they don't think of raping and pillaging. They think of Talk Like a Pirate Day and halloween costumes.

In Defense of Microsoft

[flnca]

I'm a long-time Windows user. For me, it started in 1991 with Windows 3.1, when I had to use MS-DOS and Windows at my first employer. I wasn't satisfied at all, being used to the power and comfort of AmigaOS on my Amiga computers at home. However, in 1994, I bought my first PC (because I was self-employed at that time) and my first Windows was Windows 95. I bought it around the days when it began selling, because I wanted to have a 32-bit Windows (and didn't think of NT at that time). Since then, I've purchased Windows 98, 2000 and XP (the latter two as System Builder editions which were much cheaper than the retail versions).

With XP, I had the problem that after a number of changes in my computer (like changing the mainboard or the hard drive for the umpteenth time because something didn't work), the Activation system directed me to the Phone Activation Service, where I was dependent on the leniency of operators to give me a valid activation code. After a couple of more XP crashes on that box -- until I found reliable hardware -- I decided not to use XP anymore on that and go looking for something else. At that point, I had already worked with Linux, and in office, with Solaris and AIX, and so I was open to that.

During this 2-year period, I tried almost every free OS there is, including various Linux distributions, FreeBSD and Solaris x86. Except perhaps Ubuntu Linux (which I removed to try out Solaris), none of the OSes including Solaris were stable enough to stay on my box for long. Sooner or later, they either self-destructed or were auto-destroyed by configure-script-based installers. I never expected such unreliability and instability from those UNIX-based systems.

Then my brother told me that with Windows Genuine Advantage, phone activation would no longer be required, and I gave it a go: I installed my old XP copy, Service Pack 2, and updated until Windows Genuine Advantage was installed and telling me I should activate my copy of Windows. I did that, and bam! Now I have XP on my box without the trouble of phone activation.

Microsoft has won me back as a customer. I definitely plan to get a system-builder edition of Windows Vista sometime in the future. The Vista upgrade advisor program from Microsoft says I can upgrade to Vista Business or Ultimate without much trouble. The system builder edition of Vista Ultimate is still $200, but that's only half the retail price (without the phone support, which I don't need anyway).

As a developer, I'm pleased that Microsoft now provides free copies of its Visual Studio 2005 Express editions, and I'm eager to learn C# and .NET programming (and perhaps Visual Basic -- I've been programming BASIC since I was a kid, but never tried out Visual Basic).

And about that new anti-piracy program: I like it; I think that office network security often hangs by a thin thread. Not only are there companies that don't license all their copies of Windows, but some people responsible for office networks don't really know what they're doing: Some forbid the use of Internet Explorer, which precludes the use of Windows Update to keep the system patched up. Some people think Windows Update would break their system. But in my experience, Windows Update used on all computers in the network, keeps the systems more stable, reliable, and safe. Together with up-to-date security systems like virus scanners, etc., this can have a significant impact on network security. And using only genuine software on all computers in the network can also contribute to network security.

In my opinion, the only thing left to do for Microsoft to extinguish piracy is to give out free versions of their operating systems and office products that are feature-reduced but usable. This would make a big difference in countries like that of the former USSR, China, and other low-salary countries. People there can't simply afford a genuine Windows copy nowadays, and of course they should check out free and/or open source software, but