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68 Comments
- jimmyblake, on 11/05/2007, -1/+32Well at least the pirates managed to ship something ahead of schedule - unlike Microsoft with Vista itself.
One thing you have to admire is the speed at which the pirates can print packaging, laser label the CDs, forge the holograms and cut the data - most software companies can't achieve the speed of distribution the pirates do. Then again the pirates do have a near 100% profit margin to motivate them as they have invested nothing in developing the product itself.
Basically, if Microsoft chooses to hold back the consumer release of Windows by a few months after the business release, they are just driving people into the hands of pirates. The movie industry has got wise to this and is moving to a model with synchronised global releases rather than staggering them across the world. That way people who want to see a movie pay to see it, rather than being frustrated that they have to wait months and buy a pirate DVD.
The best way to stop piracy is to stop trying to create several markets, as Microsoft has with consumer and business markets with Vista (at least they are going to a synchronised global launch of the consumer version) - products from one market will find their way into the others. Consumers get frustrated at reading the reviews for a product that seems to have been coming for ages - because it has been - and want to get their hands dirty.
In a world where bits move freely, a recorded movie in the US quickly becomes a pirated movie in Europe. - yonis, on 10/12/2007, -2/+23That joke is the new Caps Lock.
- iMyst, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20Oh no, what on Earth will I do without Windows Update from Microsoft... woops something fell out of my bookmarks...
http://windowsupdate.62nds.com/ - Shirk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+21You're pretty picky over a $2.50 purchase, Ziging.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19@DeezNutz420
Will it bury? Yes! - iMyst, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15WHAT? THIS ISN'T HIP?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12This is news?
- Hilton, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12Accordingly to amazon.com Windows Vista Ultimate UPGRADE (Signature Edition) will cost 259.00 $.
$2.50 is 100 times cheaper.
$0 if you leech it. - acomj, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11They've been in Mexico for about 3 weeks now..
(see picture). I was told by a passer by to put away my camera after this shot.
http://www.plocp.com/images/vista_MG_3800.jpg - Vigacmoe, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10"May i also remind you that for $20, u can get about 10 bus rides"
20RMB, roughly $2.5USD, is 20 bus rides in Beijing, or 50 bus rides if you have a bus card (available everywhere), or 100 bus rides if you have a student bus card. - NanoStuff, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Microsoft is probably gonna come out in public with 'deep concerns' of piracy but off camera drool at the potential for market share in China.
A Chinese fella that makes 10 dollars a day isn't gonna go out and buy an original Vista, I'm sure Microsoft can do the math on that one. Pirated Chinese Vista is as good for the pirates as it is for Microsoft. They either rip it or they don't use it at all, Microsoft would much prefer the former. - misfit410, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8Last time I was there they also had a DVD of Spiderman 3, funny, the screens on the back appeared
to be from Ghostbusters...
I know I'd be careful what I buy there. - PsychoPNut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6and the apple crowd awakens....
- MioTheGreat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Why? So applications that need an HTML rendering engine can add bloat to their installers checking for prerequisites? (What about help files? They all use HTML rendering with IE)
- Cronium, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5You payed $30 dollars for something in China? It better have been a TV or something, or you exemplify the stereotype of a stupid westerner.
- reject, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Dugg, just for the bit at the end.
"P.S. -Props to the box designer that left the trademark symbols next to Microsoft and Vista; we tip our hats to your sense of irony." - q3ctf4, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Why hasn't China adopted linux as the standard OS is beyond me. I've read that most third world countries prefer pirated versions of Windows over Linux and the computers come pre-installed with Linux but the consumer formats their new pc over with windows. Reason: Video Games. Linux needs to get moving in this area if they want to penetrate in the emerging markets.
- PsychoPNut, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4....or wait for the student release, no activation required and everything is normal.
- imyayo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3You sound so surprised in the title..
- Phil246, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3additional features are one thing, and fair enough if they want to stop those going to pirated copies.
Security updates however are another matter, especially if they are from-remote vulnerabilities since every compromised, pirated machine is turned into another attacker against geniune customers of windows.
Those sorts of fixes should be pushed out to all copies, pirated or otherwise. - insomniac8400, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Great way to get Vista, unless you like windows updates.
- spyder91, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7I'm happy spending the extra money to get a copy that's actually usable. Have fun using Windows Updates to add functionality/security... I mean think about how often you use the software, it's not really that much in the long run.
- yum9me, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I love the topic description.
"Already?" - chess007, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Piracy? In other countrys?? No way! I thought it was all those evil teenagers and college students stealing music in the U.S. clogging up the tubes!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@iMyst
Sweet! Now I don't have to open IE7 at all! :D - iMyst, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Because of when they did it.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Where is that at? man i love piracy in mexico
- wtf00, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12.50? damn I would buy it for my whole family for that price..
- aroundtown, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Does it come pre-installed in those new Chinese computers they are working on?
- spyder91, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I love how there's Spring Break disc and Playboy two over from Mickey and Cars.
- KenOh, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Before you guys act surprised at all this, you should know that the piracy system there works really, really quickly. You can find most movies for sale on DVD about a week before they come out in US theatres. Of course there are varying quality issues (still haven't been able to find a good copy of The Illusionist), but most things are actually quite alright.
- Lemonion, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2What happens when the Chinese consumer, having purchased his pirated Vista sets about to install it in his PC? Won't he need massive upgrades to use Vista?
Perhaps that is Microsoft's greatest anti-piracy option, set forth with an OS that needs a new computer. Oh the irony. It's killing me. Ooog. - MrDiggle, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sweet! When can I get a copy?
- geoken, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The Chinese Government already makes their own distro. But this doesn't mean the average person would rather use Linux.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Eeeeeh....Yeaaah.....
Wasn't there already something about 80% of China using pirated versions of Windows? - ch28kid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1this is so common in china.
its similar to what they have in hong kong, software and movie piracy is everywhere and parents encourage their kids to support piracy.
my parents live in hk, and they love to watch pirated movies! 2$ us per movie and 3-4$ us depending on software. os like microsoft xp, office, adobe (related software), 3d apps will run around 4$ us and software like nero7 and games are 2-3$ us. - GoldYoshi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Or you can go ahead and pirate "Melinda Gates" version of Vista that has it's own fake activation server for updates.
- rudy23, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3IMO microsoft did a great job starting with windows XP and genuine advantage. although it svery annoying at times and does bring up some false positives majority of the people are happy to get a genuine XP license because they get updates without a problem.
They know they cant stop piracy so instead of crippling the OS with more security measures they just stop providing live updates to the pirated versions. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1http://btjunkie.org/search?q=vista
- kingygk, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3That didn't take long Ha Ha
- lilinux, on 08/20/2008, -0/+0From my point of view,Li Hongzhang had payed it.
someone guess that, it's Microsoft's scheme,you can see,most people in china use Windows OS, and Linux/Unix can not develop, Chinese enjoy their simple operate on computer - GoldYoshi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Read my above post. It has been cracked already, about 3 months ago.
- wtanaka, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I saw a Vista disk attached to a magazine at a roadside newsstand in Kunming about 3 weeks ago.
- dle5, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3I wouldn't pay $2.50 for the real version of windows, much less the bootleg. I'll never understand why people subject themselves to the headaches.
- joshwong, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1So if I downloaded and installed the .iso of that, would I be double pirating??
- iMyst, on 10/12/2007, -5/+4Yeah, that along with it being easier to get access to drugs. I think that about covers it for benefits. Now for the con list...
- tektalk, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I'm never going to trust the chinese with anything cheap and pirated. Last time I tried it, I lost 30$ and was kinda pissed for a while. Even with the registration code, things won't work or install correctly. So I'm never going to china for any type of videogame purchase, and I warn the would-be extreme cheapskates of America to never go to China to purchase Software you know are pirated. If you do, good luck and hope you're kids won't be disappointed.
- metalfingers, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Why is it a surprise that a couple of people burned a couple of DVDs?
- kavaliro, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2You've got a copy of Vista for sale? I've got a spare penny. Wait--on second thought, I'll keep the penny. It's worth more.
- jdwyz, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2The best comment so far...And probably true....
"Anto @ Jan 21st 2007 7:46PM"
Poor old China then, having to use the over anticipated, over hyped and sadly, soon to be over here software! ;-)
Still at least if China is using Vista you can expect it to miss any sattelites it aims at in future, so it ain't all bad! -
Show 51 - 68 of 68 discussions
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