Earth to Microsoft: Eastern European users aren't the enemy

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 06 February 2007 09:11

Opinion and Analysis

There can be little argument that Mr Gorbachev is right. Yet his appeal to the richest man in the world appears to have fallen on deaf ears judging by statements out of the Paris-based European office of Microsoft. According to Microsoft, Mr Ponosov's case is a criminal case and is a matter for the Russian courts. A teacher who unwittingly buys computers pre-loaded with pirated Microsoft software for his school is a criminal?

Well yes, according to Microsoft he is and, instead of being given a commission for introducing a new generation of potential Microsoft users to the company's software, he should be publicly humiliated and sent to Siberia for five years with other dangerous criminals.

In previous stories, I have mentioned the much heralded case guitar strings manufacturer Ernie Ball. In 2000, the mid-sized, much respected company was raided without warning by law enforcement officers at the behest of the Microsoft funded BSA (Business Software Association). A few dozen copies of out of license software was found on some of the company's computers.

As the company's CEO Sterling Ball explained later, as the company bought new computers, it would pass old computers to employees down the food chain who would use them for other purposes. Quite often software that was no longer being used on those computers would not be erased off the hard drive. If the company had been contacted and been told it had a compliance problem it would have acted, according to Ball. However, no matter, BSA and Microsoft got their mark and made a big noise about it on prime time news.

As a result, Ernie Ball moved all of its computers to Linux and Microsoft lost a previously loyal customer for life.

Fast forward seven years and move across to Eastern Europe.

A dedicated provincial teacher uses scarce funds to buy computers for his students unbeknownst to him loaded with pirated Microsoft software. Law enforcement officers pounce with the blessing of Microsoft. The news travels around the world. Other teachers in emerging economies watch and wonder whether they can afford to go the Microsoft route or whether they should check this Linux thing out.