Microsoft Uses WGA To Obtain Record Jail Sentences

theodp writes "According to Microsoft, 'No information is collected during the [Genuine Advantage Program] validation process that can be used to identify or contact a user.' That's little comfort to the software counterfeiters who were just handed jail sentences ranging from 1.5-6.5 years by the Futian People's Court in China, especially since Microsoft contends that much of the estimated $2B in bogus software was detected by its Windows Genuine Advantage program. 'Software piracy negatively impacts local economic growth,' explained Microsoft VP Fengming Liu in a celebratory New Year's Eve press release. But then again, so does transferring $16B of assets and $9B in annual profit to an Irish tax haven, doesn't it?"

Comments

Re:Redundant but necessary reply:

[Futile Rhetoric]

Well, it's doing wonders for the local (Irish) economy.

Re:Local economic impact

[couchslug]

"OT, I know, but God I hate manager speak."

Me too. It's time we pushed beyond it to embrace a new paradigm.

Re:ridiculous

[shutdown -p now]

It beats the hell out of the rest of us why Americans remain so unconcerned about the vast scale of their theft, not to mention the tax evasion - and continue to let them get away with it and even defend them

When was Microsoft convicted of tax evasion?

Re:Not good!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not like WGA works anyway. I remember when it first came out they had this program you had to download and run to verify that you were running "Genuine Windows" before it would let you download things from Microsoft's website. So I downloaded it and ran it in Wine, which is apparently "Genuine Windows".