$500M Piracy Ring Busted In China

Blahbooboo3 writes "Reported by several news organizations, pirated software worth more than $500 million has been seized by authorities in China as part of a joint operation run by Chinese police and the FBI. Microsoft estimates that the software piracy of an international counterfeiting syndicate, over the past six years, cost the company at least $2 billion in lost software revenue. Microsoft said that key information in the investigation came from its Windows Genuine Advantage program, an anti-piracy system that can check whether an OS is legit. It's generally accepted that Microsoft has done well out of software piracy: it helps products become widely used, and as the market matures, people start to pay for their software. And this has been a major factor in Windows beating Linux in China, as Bill Gates has admitted."

As the market matures

[hateful monkey]

Apparently Microsoft has decided that the market is now mature enough to start tightening up on the availability of pirate versions. They have the 90% market penetration, now they want to get the money out of that market. The first hit was free now it is time to pay. The Chinese government has been under a lot of pressure to show more concern about "intellectual property" so let the dog and pony begin.

Chinese Government M$... paranoia

[russ1337]

What I found interesting was this tid-bit:

Mundie also began talks with Chinese security officials to convince them that Microsoft's software was not a secret tool of the U.S. government. As a result, in 2003 the company offered China and 59 other countries the right to look at the fundamental source code for its Windows operating system and to substitute certain portions with their own software - something Microsoft had never allowed in the past.

That sounds like they let the Chinese Government take out the bit that does the spying for Microsoft and lets the Chinese insert the bit so it spy's for them.... Thus confirming the Chinese suspicions that it was a tool that could be used by the US Government (albeit with the use of a 'security letter ' or under general access they may have for foreign intelligence).

*puts tinfoil hat back on*

How to stop piracy

[WindBourne]

China has 2 reason why piracy is rampant. The first is that generations have been raised that all this property belongs to the state, and if the state does not claim it, then to the people. IOW, they have a different view about property rights that they are now being asked to change.
 
The bigger issue is that the chinese gov. has tied their money to America's. In effect, they have made imports to America dirt cheap, but exports to China very expensive. This is designed to kill America.What GWB should be doing rather than trying to pushing more laws, is pushing for china to allow the money to float freely. Right now, if they money was untied, the price of our goods to china would drop to somewhere between 1/2 to 1/5 of the current amount. IOW, a chinese person would see our goods cost 1/2 to 1/5 of what they are currently being charged.