Microsoft fights piracy with “Black Screen of Death”
Oct 27th, 2008 | By Opal Tribble | Category: Lead article, Microsoft, Microsoft Office
You don’t have to search hard to find a copy of the Microsoft’s extremely popular Microsoft office. This hasn’t gone unnoticed by the computer giant and while some might think Microsoft was going to turn a blind eye to the pirated copies that have been hitting the streets.
According to the Telegraph Microsoft’s latest attempt to stifle those who choose to use Microsoft products illegally has been targeted at China residents. Recently, Microsoft released a series of upgrades to Windows users. One of these upgrades was the Windows, and Office Genuine Advantage China users who had pirated software received an annoying surprise. Computer users found that their screens turned black. A small warning box appeared reprimanding them for using pirated material. Users can turn the black screen off, but it comes back every hour nagging users to buy official Microsoft updates. Additionally, Microsoft sent a Chinese-language email which said, “Microsoft’s Windows and Office Genuine Advantage will help users detect copycat operating systems. The move is just to warn users and not to influence their normal operations,”
This recent attempt by Microsoft has caused some Microsoft users in China to retaliate. Shortly afterwards the popular China search engine, Baidu, was flooded with thousands of programs created by users to eliminate the computer screen blacking out. It will be interesting to see what tactics Microsoft uses to further block people from using its pirated software.
Microsoft isn’t the only company that faces this issue. Pirated software is becoming an increasing problem. According to the Business Software Alliance one in five PC software packages is pirated or counterfeited. The PC market is continuing to increase and unfortunately piracy will still be a problem. According to the BSA lost revenue has risen from 40 billion to 48 billion. Software piracy has decreased in China it went from 90 percent in 2004 to 82 percent in 2007 however it’s financial losses has increased. The United States has received the most financial losses resulting from internet piracy in 2007 they suffered more than eight billion dollars in loss.
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