Redmond (WA) - Yesterday, Microsoft took a page out of history - literally. They marked the day and gave it a name: "Global Anti-Piracy Day." Designed to highlight their initiatives combating the global piracy epidemic, Microsoft launched education and enforcement action initiatives in 49 countries and on six continents making this a truly massive effort. Microsoft calls their foe "a sophisticated, illegal trade of pirated and counterfeit software," one which is believed to inhabit one-third of the PCs world-wide, costing software companies an estimated $50 billion in 2007. Microsoft is on the move.





The plan



Microsoft has announced programs which "include intellectual property awareness campaigns, engagements with partner businesses, educational forums, local law enforcement training, and new legal actions against alleged software counterfeiters and pirates."



Microsoft has also made the commitment to "work with communities, national governments and local law enforcement agencies around the world to help protect its customers and partners and promote the value of intellectual property as a driver of innovation."



Highlighting Microsoft's position regarding the damaging nature of pirated software, Guy Sebban, secretary general of the International Chamber of Commerce, said "It will only be possible to halt counterfeiting and piracy on a global scale through this kind of collaboration between governments and the private sector — both to educate people about the value of intellectual property and to take action against trade in illicit products."



David Finn, associate general counsel for Microsoft's Worldwide Anti-Piracy and Anti-Counterfeiting office, said "Microsoft is driving anti-piracy efforts across countries and continents through an equally sophisticated system of business intelligence, forensics and education. Together, we are working to identify international connection points between software pirates and counterfeiters, to help stop them in their tracks and protect consumers and legitimate businesses from this illegal trade."





Global Anti-Piracy Day



Microsoft's decision to name the day recognizes piracy as the most significant threat faced by software companies, even besting competition and government sanctions. By bringing world-wide attention to what they call a significant negative influence on innovation, Microsoft's efforts are now focused on globalizing the policement of existing laws, working to create new ones, and insuring that everything possible to be done is being done.



Said John Newton of the Intellectual Property Rights Project, Financial and High-Tech Crime Subdirectorate, INTERPOL General Secretariat, "There is growing evidence that highly organized, transnational criminal organizations and networks are involved in the counterfeiting of software and other goods. This is a global problem with global sources of supply; this is why we need to work together — the public and the private sectors — to stop this trade. To that end, Microsoft and INTERPOL are now cooperating with police and customs agencies around the world to use all available intelligence to ensure that our joint investigations lead to arrests and convictions of criminal counterfeiters."





Protection



Microsoft believes that by protecting legitimate software purchasers from the potential threats, pulls and draws of illegal software use, the entire market will not only produce better quality products with more innovation, but also protect users from viruses, worms and other malicious software which potentially exists on illegal, counterfeit versions.



A long standing 24-hour anti-piracy hotline at Microsoft is highlighted in their press release. 1-800-RU-LEGIT (1-800-785-3448) can be called if there is ever a concern over the legitimacy of purchased software.


Read on next page:  Author's opinion

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Opinion



I've been a software developer almost exclusively on PCs and Microsoft products for 22 years. I have seen the direction and focus Microsoft has shifted over time. I've seen them pull away from tools designed for software engineers who know and understand x86 architecture, and who write code for the machine, to modern toolsets which now manage code in virtualized environments, such as ".NET," caring less about the machine and more about the toolset than ever before.

Windows 7 is believed to be an operating system designed to be basically a .NET version of Vista - one which contains massive amounts of managed code at its core.

Microsoft's direction and focus here seems very specific:  they no longer want the machine itself to be a requirement of making their software product work. Their desire instead, is to have a functioning set of abilities which, through recompilation and minor porting from one architecture to another, can run on virtually any processor, and on any platform.



While this is a good idea in theory, the realities are that you and I, the consumer base, are losing much performance and backward compatibility in the shuffle. To test this for yourself, install a version of Vista along with your favorite modern applications and get a feel for how the system operates (for just an hour or two even). Then, install Windows 2000 and some office products used at that time, such as Microsoft Office 2000. Compare the speed of the two systems and you'll quickly find what I mean.

The circa-2000 products are extremely fast, and even faster today on modern CPUs - because they operated directly on the machine using less layers of code management. And whereas we have fancier abilities today like Office's really slick ribbon, there is nothing to prevent adding that same kind of ability to the circa-2000 software products, even with their 8-yr old internal design. It could easily be done. It just isn't being done - and therein lies part of the problem.



My point is this:

Microsoft is moving in a direction they believe is best for consumers. And in this regard they are focusing software resources, time and talent, and now global efforts toward addressing piracy, around the vision of what they believe consumers should have and what is most innovative for them. So I must ask the real question here:  Is Microsoft really helping innovation by dictating in what direction we move forward?

Is it better to have closed source products which operate more slowly today, but are potentially more operable across platforms tomorrow? Or is it better to have software which operates as fast as is possible on a particular platform, thereby using less power, saving money and even reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but also allowing third party development money and resources to go into the areas which produce the best and fastest products through the market's determination rather than something else? In the end the best product will surface, won't it? At least that's what's supposed to happen in a free market system.



I mean, if we try and focus our attentions on helping everybody, which is what Microsoft is doing with their closed source, managed code and anti-pirate initiatives, then doesn't that just pull down the guy who might design a better mousetrap? And isn't that really one big argument against the central theme of Microsoft's anti-piracy initiative - namely that piracy stifles innovation? Well, I just don't buy it.





Bottom line



I believe truly that open source is the better way out. In an open source environment there may be piracy, but there is also always a core group of developers working on the real product. And while consumers may try pirate versions from time to time, because the system is open source and because it is free to download, there is no incentive to go the course of those alternate versions. Meaning, there is no driving force behind piracy at that point.



In fact, the idea of having a closed source system of products (like Microsoft's), coupled to a huge, global, law-enforcement effort enforcing anti-piracy laws in 49 countries on six continents, one so uber-massive it actually requires a day be set aside to address it, well that just seems to be exactly the wrong way to do it.  At least to me.



It is for that reason that I suggest everybody download the current version of Ubuntu Linux, burn it to a CD, boot from the CD and experience what an alternate, open-source, free operating system can do for your PC.  Once installed, download the latest versions of OpenOffice, Firefox or Opera, Beryl for a 3D desktop experience that puts Vista and Leopard both to shame, and any of the 10s of thousands of software programs freely available for that open-source platform, and in the process do two things:

1)  Help Microsoft combat global piracy, and
2)  Find out how wonderful using a PC can actually be once again.

Note:  I suggest Ubuntu Linux because it is a Debian-based distribution, has a developer base of literally thousands (across all of Debian), and has a software add/remove feature which is easy to use and quickly helps you find and install what's available, including required dependencies.