"Office 2000 users in some countries [Australia, New Zealand and Brazil]
...who wish to run their word processing or spreadsheet program more
than 50 times must obtain a special code from Microsoft -- a code that
will be tied to the specific hardware configuration of the computer that
they want to use."
AND
"Microsoft's answer hinges on one word: piracy. John Duncan, product
manager for Microsoft Office, explains, "Piracy is a huge problem. We're
trying to take a stand for the entire industry. We plan to make it an
open technology that smaller companies could use. To say that piracy is
not a problem ignores the effects it is having on small software
companies -- there's no sales for their products ... Ultimately, it will
hurt innovation in this industry."
So the old arguments for and against copy protection rear their ugly
head. Can anyone explain to me:
1. How this will actually stop piracy?
2. How this benefits Microsoft's paying customers, rather than simply
inconveniencing them?
3. How Microsoft can, with a straight face, claim they're making a stand
for the small companies in the industry ?
4. Who made up the figures showing that "software piracy caused the loss
of more than 600,000 jobs and $11.4 billion in revenue worldwide in
1997." ?
Microsoft must have some of the greatest spin doctors on earth.
-- **************************************** Kieron Lawson, Database Developments Ltd kieron@developments.co.nz ****************************************