It is wrong to pirate software. That is true.

It is also wrong for companies to gouge consumers, charge U.S. customers 3 times what customers in some other countries pay for the same product because they think we can afford it, add software to our PCs without permission that harms functionality on our PCs, abuse the court system by suing grandmothers for things they didn't do, use lawsuits to extort money from people, and deny people the right to use as they see fit something they've paid for.

All of these things are going on. Two wrongs don't make a right, but who is really getting the short end of the stick?

Those things may be true and they may be poor coustomer service . . but they are not wrong.  Using a MS product is a choice.  People can alsways say no and get an Apple (a company that charges a high fee for products AND controls the software AND the hardware) or go with Linux.

Zubaz waits for Amiga (again)   

after some more reading and some more thinking about this, I have come to this conclusion...

when someone charges outrageous prices for their crap, they're asking for piracy. It’s their own damn fault. 400 bucks for an operating system is a joke. I'm sticking with my xp pro until the price comes down or i get a pirated copy of ultimate... I am just not willing to pay that price, so Old Borg is right, I will not be a customer to that price, so yes if I get a Pirated copy of it, its not a loss to them just merely a gain to me. Microsoft will not suffer for it either. Which just bring to mind the greed of these companies? I mean what is the actual cost of the initial program anyways? If it cost 1 million dollars from concept to market shelf and another 1 million to maintain the service (i.e.: ongoing support, customer service and info) to Vista from start to finish (these are just a number to play with) and they expect 100 million copies to be sold, then they are the true pirates for charging 400 per copy. So when a few copies get pirated ask yourself, who ripped who off first.

I bet you, sell vista ultimate for 50 bucks and it would have sold 1000 times over then what it has so far.
far.

Sorry, Zubaz, but they ARE wrong. Something doesn't have to be illegal to be wrong. A basic tenet of both law and common sense is that one cannot execise free choice or give free consent when under duress. If your job says you use certain software products, and sometimes you have to take work home with you, you don't have a real choice that you can do something else. You buy the products you need to have.

And you don't get to choose whether you pay the American price for Windows or the Chinese price. And besides, saying "pick Mac" as a defence against being gouged by MS presupposes you're not being gouged by Apple. Linux? Great for us, but I'm not sure how well my elderly parents are going to fare updating to the latest versions of gtk and Gnome, not to mention getting their new photo printer working. This argument smacks of "it's not WRONG to mug you, because you could have walked down a better lit alley. You had a choice."

You don't get to choose if the copy protection software added on to that new game disables functionality on your DVD burner or not; it is installed surreptitiously.

You must think it's right that after buying a movie on DVD, you have to buy it again if you want to watch it on your Ipod (if it's even available). Or that the fast forward button on your DVD player is disabled when the introductory advertisements play EVERY TIME you put the disc in.

And if you really think the way the RIAA is using the court system for extortion is ethical and therefore "not wrong" then I'm afraid there's really no room to find common ground.

There's right, and there's wrong. Those things are wrong, and the companies that do those things should be ashamed. My ethical code does not allow me to say that an immoral act is ok simply because it has become commonplace.

Cheers...

This is a hoax...please update the original post please.

It's about time microsoft pulled thier head out of the sand and retaliated to the pirates, because half the reason the bloody software costs so much in the first place is due to theft , and piracy of code etc pushing up the price to try and cut thier loses

I am certainly not worried as all my software is legit, i am in design so all my software is tax deductuedable anyways lol.

But for those who are not so lucky i can certainly see the appeal to download pireated stuff, i mean hell it's not hard to do is it

[Removed by admin.  No need to post ways to get around systems.  -- ZubaZ]

I don't do this myself as i have always supported the great work stardock and stardock design are doing, it's great a place offers designers a place to not only share thier creativiy but also make some $ at the same time.

But amyways i'm off topic now so meh ......

Excalpius, I don't think Zoomba would mind if you provided a link to support your hoax statement.

Did you actually find a statement released by someone saying this is a hoax? Sure hope it was from a Microsoft spokes person or someone from their PR department.

If it is a hoax it's not a very good one. I believe MS has a track record of doing stranger things.   

Um, well I've got a genuine copy of vista. Got updates, my own activatiion key and everything...

I guess pirates just stay one step ahead

I suppose all things being fare in love and war there is always some kind of code to be cracked. Multi-BILLION dollar Microsoft didn't get where they are by giving anthing away for free and what ever it is you buy from them will cost you your first born. BUT!!!! There is nothing contrived by man - for man - that can Not be stolen or duplicated. I wish the thief all the luck in the world ,really. The 'Gates Hot Shot Team' might have thrown a monkey wrench into the new system but given enough time and having the right knowledge and tools, The code will be broken. REMEMBER ---- Nothing is Sacred! -- It Takes a Thief. Good Luck! ------------- Mr.B!

I heard they were doing something that would make Vista completely vanish off the face of the earth as if it never even existed..................  





......then I woke up   


(The preceding has been brought to you by Skinner's Rant Magazine.) 

Ok..... if anyone needs clearer information that this is a hoax...(Philly0381)

WWW Link

that article links to WWW Link

in which I will weed out all the other printed material, and directly quote..



(third paragraph)

This video for MS OEMs seems like it ends in a Black screen. http://oem.microsoft.com/downloads/public/US/wgavista/Flash.html

From the source of the original story (http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1971652632) (emphasis mine):

So maybe Zoomba should save this article for later? 

Okay, I read the posts and links that proport that the Black Screen of Death was a hoax or at worst a misunderstanding of information given out.

I'll tell you up front, I'm a person that listens and smiles alot which doesn't halp in this case because I don't see it as a hoax, but someone talking that shouln't have been. I haven't read everything that MS put out on this, but its seems the people that are saying hoax are all non MS people.

From Zubaz reply and quote I'm left with a feeling Vista computers and maybe all Windows software running computers that are not genuine might just get and early Christmas present that they are not going to want to open. Just my opinion.   

To reply to some, i am not saying that piracy is right if they "never would've bought it" in the first place... I'm just saying that to quote those copies as "lost revenue" is wrong and misleading - basically a way to make the company complaining look more like a victim than it really is.

Again - i will just say that it goes like this...
1. "Lost revenue" is due to piracy (as they say)
2. they introduce stuff to reduce piracy, and claim it's working (remember the big China bust?)
3. If high costs are due to piracy (and not corporate gouging) as they claim, prices go down as piracy goes down.

BONK! Sorry, logic fails... instead of prices going down as piracy is reduced (as it should according to their logic), they jack it higher still.
And this becomes even more of an affront in the face of the China pricing which people pointed out on here (i had been unaware of that bit).

The__Goo (post 33) was completely right (though i think 50$ is a little too low), that their constant ballooning of prices only contributes to the piracy problem, and if they brought the price DOWN to something reasonable (like the OEM copies) they would sell a LOT more...

I'm sure they already make a major profit just through sheer volume of sales, and if they lowered the price some, and sold that many more - and found just the right sweet spot balance between the two (those good old calculus optimizations of multiple factors, in this case price and sales volume), i'm SURE they could make even more.
So it would be an all around win as more people buy (benefiting MS) and it costs reasonable (benefiting the consumer).

Mac ftw?