05.31.09
Microsoft Takes Legal Action to Keep Windows XP Out of the (Black) Market
“It’s easier for our software to compete with Linux when there’s piracy than when there’s not.”
–Bill Gates
Summary: More crackdowns hint at tougher stance on Windows giveaways and more urgent need for revenue
People really, really don’t want Windows Vista. As pointed out last year, Vista has made Windows XP quite a hot (and “forbidden”) item on the black market. Microsoft wants to put an end to it.
Oceanside Man Charged with Selling Bootleg WindowsXP
[...]
An Oceanside man accused, along with an Illinois resident, of conspiring to buy $500,000 worth of counterfeit Microsoft software and then selling it over the Internet pleaded not guilty Tuesday to federal charges.
As we showed many times before, Microsoft has no problem with counterfeiting as long as it helps Microsoft (and very often it does). See for example:
- Microsoft’s Crocodile Tears
- “Please, Please Steal My Software, You Disgusting Thief!”
- Bill Gates is Still Fighting Against Free/Libre Software, Quietly
- Microsoft ‘Advocates’ Free Software by Suing the World
- Antitrust Complaint About Microsoft, a So-called ‘Pirate’
- Microsoft Sends Its ‘Partners’ to Prison
- Microsoft’s B.A.D. in China, Philippines
- Microsoft Insults the People of China, Oman, the Newly-elected President
- Microsoft Blackmails China and Then Fires 300 Chinese Employees
- More “Independent” Studies… Against GNU/Linux
- Microsoft Uses “Piracy” Against the Laws
Now that Microsoft faces issues of debt, it is working extremely hard to squeeze every penny is can. From the African media this week:
MICROSOFT in conjunction with the Uganda Performing Rights Society (UPRS) have nabbed Asians in Kampala with pirated computer software.
The Asians were caught during an anti-piracy operation coordinated by the society in the city centre and its suburbs.
The two Asians were manning Infopoint shop that deals in computers and accessories on Kamu Kamu Plaza on Entebbe Road. They were nabbed by the Police and taken to Central Police Station (CPS) for interrogation.
Even charities are among the victims of Microsoft this month. Now is a good time to escape to Free software and adopt GNU/Linux. █
“People everywhere love Windows.”
–Bill Gates
