[b]Microsoft: Caught and Fined[/b]
Microsoft was found guilty of software piracy last year by a French court, according to facts unearthed today by the geek community.
But the Redmond giant’s conviction and three million franc (?285,000) fine somehow managed to escape the headlines.
[b]SONY/BMG:[/b]
“Windows admin tool developer PointDev says a Sony BMG was caught when an IT staffer actually called up for support and gave a pirated license number to the phone tech. That’s some pretty shady behavior for a company that’s rammed anti-piracy measures down its own customers’ throats — too bad it’s probably not going to feel the hit of the ?300,000 ($475,000) lawsuit nearly as hard as the college students it routinely sues for $5,000.”
[b]Four men fined for piracy:[/b]
“CHINA: Four men have been jailed for selling pirate versions of Microsoft software – along with fines worth almost ?1.25million.
They had been providing free copies of Microsoft Windows XP and other programmes to an estimated 10million people, on a website called Tomato Garden.”
[b]Woman fined for sharng Pinball[/b]
“A woman has been tracked down by an american firm for making its pinball game “available for file-sharers”. A guilty verdict and a ?16,000 fine later and she wishes that she had paid for that bloody ?26 game.”
well at leat you can’t say yuo haven’t heard of anyone caught or fined for pirating software. As for your proLinux rant, I am sorry to hear that your preference is not a market leader. All these “Windows monkeys” really threw a wrench into the gears for you didn’t they. There you were hoping a more obscure platform would or in your eyes SHOULD dominate teh market, but people still chose to use Windows due to popularity and compatibility with other companies and markets than any other OS.
Sux, don’t it? But hey, at least you didn’t invest millions only to be beat out by a competitor, it’s just your personal preference not being as popular as you’d like it to be, in your case.
Look on the bright side, if ‘nix was actually as popular as Microsoft, it would also be the most exploited and bug ridden software around due to a lack of standardization and proprietary updating.
This way you can seem cool to your computer buddies, you cn pretend you know better than all the “Windows monkeys” who use what their marketplace demands, you can pretend you are more computer savvy on forums like this one and you can STILL have yoru software for free, withotu stealing it like all those other NASTY people do.
If Windows is such crap, and it’s for monkey’s, who the hell cares who uses unlicenced versions?
Do you think Linux would have ANY chance if they charged for all their software?
It would be “WHO-nix?”
You sound bitter that the world didn’t follow your ever so clever lead and yet you dismiss the same people as if they are below you.
But I must admit, you are very right about one thing, I couldn’t care less.