Piracy Built the Romanian IT Industry

An anonymous reader submitted a link to a Washington Post article about a very interesting press conference. Romanian President Traian Basescu stood up in front of international press and discussed the role pirated Microsoft software played in bringing about the IT industry in the country. The other big player at the press conference was Microsoft chair Bill Gates. Gates' company was opening a technical center in Bucharest, and he declined to comment on the president's remarks. Romania passed anti-piracy laws nearly 10 years ago, but nearly 70 percent of software used in the country continues to be of an illicit nature.

Comments

Re:Gypsies?

[BobDigiDigi]

Someone is gonna mark him flamebait... but c'mon. We're grown up people. It IS funny.

Romania has no fleet

[unchiujar]

Therefore we cannot be pirates. There, fixed that for ya.
On a serious note, what the article says is true, I didn't know anyone in Romania that had any legal software. Everything was pirated, including foreign music. But on the other side that availability of any pirated software allowed technically inclined people to learn a whole host of different things and culturally inclined ones to listen to every genre of music.
The problem is economic, because the average Romanian wage is around 200-300 per month so a lot of people cannot afford to buy software. And yes I am a Romanian in case anyone asks.
By the way this guy is a Romanian: http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/29/181 1201.
Take that Bill Gates.

Re:To whom is piracy most damging?

[kv9]

I live in Romania, and the fact is that many people here, after spending 500$ on a decent PC, find it hard to pay another 400$ on software (cheap computers here come with no software, or FreeDOS or Linux, and in some cases illegal Windows).

you're an idiot, and it's people like you that give us a bad name

FWIW, we ALSO pay the Microsoft tax. even back in '98 Windows came bundled when I bought a PC. this FreeDOS/Linux shit is a new trend just to lure suckers into buying "cheaper" computers.

there's student editions for everything, the prices are adapted to the market (somewhat), the posibilities ARE there.

let's face it, this "pirating" shit is a global thing. we romanians, with our crappy limp-dick-"broadband" can't even hold a candle to the amount of warezing most of slashbots do.

things are looking up, but people are reluctant to change. news flash!

and before you start pointing fingers, try to realize that we're a faint blip on the radar, when it comes to the amount of spam/viruses/trojans you non-third-world-country-advancely-technologized people (oh, and those damn russians too!) spew.

/rant