Computer software piracy flourishes usatoday.com
On the recent popular subject of software piracy in China, and what Microsoft's doing about it. Quotes for amusement only.
Microsoft is battling piracy with two decidedly soft-sell approaches. The company is offering training and support to big customers who buy its software and pledge to respect copyright laws.
The software giant also joined a Hong Kong-based record company to co-produce a pop music CD featuring popular artists from China and Hong Kong who sing about the virtues of honesty.
With Bill's sterling example on what honesty can do for you, this one's got to be a sure-fire hit. War is peace, ignorance is strength, and Windows is Open. Of course, the Red Guard remnants will have to have one of those theological debates about what kind of free software comes from good Communists, and what kind comes from bad Communists. Remember Bill on that one:
At one point, Slivka proposed that Microsoft give away some software on the Net, as Netscape was doing. Gates, he recalls, ''called me a communist.''
We are all Communists now. The more intrepid Communists may also consider comparing the old PR history as told in that Business Week story, and the new revisionist version coming soon to a courtroom near you. The Chinese have lots of experience with that kind of history, I think, though I believe it was Stalin's invention.
Cheers, Dan. |
