Microsoft and Software Piracy

[Outofin]

Some random and a bit long comments.

The easiest conclusion regarding piracy is: they are bad people stealing our money.

Well, you’re angry and frustrated. What are you going to do about it? For lawyers and politicians, they’re trained to follow man-made rules. Rules are right, while people against rules are wrong, and bad. But for businessmen and scientists, reality is always right, while people against reality are stupid. We need some pragmatism.

Think about it. The industry used to charge for browser software and website services. But people didn’t like to pay. Some companies insisted charging people and they disappeared. Some invented new “business model” and survived. Same for musicians. For no-namers, it’s a good business model to give music for free and make money on concerts.

Some very obvious common fallacies are:

- Copying a CD is like stealing a CD.

No. They’re fundamentally and obviously different actions. It’s so obvious that I am reluctant to explain why.

- Lost revenue. Our software retail price is $100, and there’re 1 million pirated copies out there, so our lost revenue is 100 million.

Nope. Your lost revenue is somewhere between 100 million and 0.

A very good report I read about Microsoft in China is “How Microsoft Conquered China (Or is it the other way around)”. It’s a comedy in some respects. Microsoft fiercely protected their rights. They achieved little except deteriorating public relation. Even worse, the government decided to use Linux. Microsoft responded quickly this time – they offered special offers to the government. The price was a business secret. A few months I ago, someone on TV said the price was less than 100 yuan. This is shameful!

Eliminating piracy is to create mighty competitors. The way to suffocate competitors is to tolerate piracy. Microsoft is no fool.

But to make money, eventually they’ll need to sell. But they refuse to lower their retail price. For Microsoft, they want Chinese consumers to change their behavior and start to pay 5000 yuan for Office suite. For consumers, they want Microsoft to change its behavior and lower the price to 50 yuan.

So, which scenario is more likely to happen? Of course, the result is somewhere between the two, it’s always about percentage (some won’t even pay 50 yuan). But, which scenario is more likely to happen?

So, I suggest Microsoft to change their pricing policy, for their own good.

[flameproof]

The price was a business secret. A few months I ago, someone on TV said the price was less than 100 yuan. This is shameful!

Where is the shame? You think Dell is paying full gift box prices? Large volume users get large discounts. I have no idea what Dell is really paying, but I can buy an English OEM Xp for about US$100 - so I guess Dell pays not much more then 20-40

Correct if if I am wrong, but I think in CN most notebooks are bundled with an MS O/S and that this O/S is fully legit.

MS knows very well that their biz in CN can only grow.