Honestly, I don't think Microsoft cares about people using illegal software. They make enough money off the big businesses that have to buy legal software (if they got caught, they would get fined heavily, enough to lose their business). And the way Microsoft phrases things; they call it the "Windows Genuine Advantage". The advantage of having legal software is you get access to the Windows Update website. If they really cared about getting rid of illegal software, the advantage of having legal software would be being able to use your computer after the 30 day trial runs out. Almost every computer is on the Internet today so all they would have to do is make their OS "call home" and check to see if anyone else is using the same CD Key. They aren't picky about issuing new CD keys either. The way it is now, you can call them and give them an illegal CD key, and they'll issue a new one for free (unless it's blacklisted), but you can always call back if it is. When Windows Vista first came out, I think it was the Vice President that said, "pirated software is really cutting into our profits". Microsoft talks about piracy sometimes, but I don't see any changes being made.

Microsoft is already so rich and they make billions just from the people buying legally. The prophets they lose are probably less than .5% of what they're already making so they probably don't care much.

The main money is not at the market of people that need to download their OSes. I can surely say that over 90% of the computers are OEM built. (By HP, Dell, Acer, etc.) Those all pay for their licenses.

Plus, when it comes to software, most of the money is at the business industry. Company buying a thousand Office licenses, Vista HP licenses, etc.

Let's just put it this way: Bill Gates wakes up in the morning millions of dollars richer.

I'd like to say that they do care.

One of my computers doesn't have "genuine windows" but they give you the updates after a while


I can finally run ie 7

You do know that he's retired.

*cough*interest*cough*

Money working for money

Even if this is true, he must have atleast SOME stock... or money in a CD/money market..

He is not retired from all works at Microsoft. He has just stepped down from his position that he held for so long. His work load isn't as big as it was so he has more time to relax and enjoy his billions. He also holds plenty of market shares which is where his money comes from. He actually makes over a million dollars every time he goes to bed at night. Microsoft is amazing when you dig into the finances.

To answer your question, of course they care. Companies have to care to hold up a reputation, but they choose to put more of their resources in other areas because they see those areas as being more important.

Microsoft makes computers (ot Os's) not prophets (the guys in the bible who talk to god...) but yes i agree the amount of people illegally using the OS's aren't enough to cause major losses

Mircosoft does care, but not in the way that they send FBI to knock your door. They'll just use some serial numbers (easy to avoid, huh? ) and that's it.

They're also giving vital security updates for illegal operating systems, because otherwise trojans would get all the computers.

I'm using a bootleg version of Xp right now...

On a side note our school Cp's now have ME edition OS.

oh no hes not!!!! any way they do care

Expand on that, please?

Just because Gates makes billions doesn't mean Microsoft shouldn't worry about pirated software. I also thought that Microsoft was restricted when it came to dealing with illegal copies of Windows because of Licensing Terms, does anyone know more about that?

al right i will um uhh uaa ok they dont or atleast i cant think of any examples

Then don't post. And please, spell right.

Bill Gates is retiring in 2008, he has not retired yet.

Nope, he actually wakes up 4 million Dollars richer


I think that Microsoft do care about there piracy problems. They just want to stop so it doesn't ruin there reputation

I think Microsoft cares, but I think they know they can't do anything about it. Take the RIAA for example. The RIAA has spent millions of dollars flooding P2P networks with fake files, putting copy protection on their CDs, and they sue 1 out of a million people doing illegally downloading things. The RIAA hasn't really achieved anything by doing those things. All their protection has been cracked, and millions still download files illegally online. So, all they've really done is waste their money. I think Microsoft is smarter than that. They do what they can but spend most of their time working on creating new and better software.

Don't make up false statistics like 1:1,000,000 because you have no facts to prove this is even a close estimation. Believe it or not, illegal downloading is certaintly less than it was say 5-10 years ago. A lot of it was done on college campuses and the RIAA is now actively talking with colleges and universities around the U.S. to catch and fine such people. I know a few people that have actually been fined by the university because of this. The RIAA can only track the users down to the university but it is the university who can further track down into their network and find the specific user. The RIAA contacts the university and then the university contacts the individual. The university fines these students even if the RIAA is only sending a documented warning because they know illegal downloads are occuring from the networks and the universities don't want to be affiliated with illegal use and they see it as a profit. Most fines by universities aren't that expensive around a couple hundred dollars; nothing like you'd have in an actual lawsuit by the RIAA. Universities have also sent documents campus wide to warn people that they are monitoring for such illegal acts and they are punishing the people before the RIAA does. So by saying the RIAA hasn't achieved anything is a huge mistake on the sides of this case. They have made a big impact on the illegal download area, but that doesn't mean that the fight to eliminate it is over. Nothing happens over night.

They dont do like Linux...
give out free OSs?
Why wont Windows have some smaaaaaaallll downloads for the oldest versions of Windows like Windows 3.1 and 1.0?
1.0 is getting gone, none of them in Norway (as i know...)
Why dont they give out for people who is interested? (Like me?)

I don't throw out false statistics. Of course there's going to be some exaggeration on both sides so maybe I'm a little off, but piracy is on the rise. It's actually 57:1,000,000 but that's still really low.

As someone's that has been downloading things online for many years, I haven't seen much change at all. I'm still able to find whatever song I want to listen to, I can still download brand new games, movies that haven't even been released to DVD and VHS yet. There are still crack sites all over the Internet so I don't really see that anything has changed. None of my online friends (via P2P chatrooms) have never been sued. Everyone would have been talking about it if they were.

17,587 people sued / 9,000,000 Users

The RIAA should be attacking those people who supply such data instead of the people downloading them. Eliminate the source, eliminate the users.

Edit: Those stats are from 2003-2005 and as such, are outdated sources of information. (As my COMM and ENGL professors would say)

The problem with piracy is that the source are the users. For every pirate you fine, ten thousand others pop up.