- Jun 30, 2001
- 12,572
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The Inquirer
AFTER READING THE COMMENTARY regarding the excerpt from the "Malaysian Star" (Piracy allowed in schools), I thought you would be delighted to like to know a few more things about this lovely country.
The average monthly pay of a citizen (and most definitely that of a civil servant, of which I happen to be one) is LESS than that of 1 legal copy of Microsoft Office + OS. And that costs about as much as a brand new computer.
So, our hypothetical citizen can either:
1) spend a month's salary on food stuff, petrol, rent, detergent, baby stuff etc etc AND one copy of pirated windows OR
2) Buy one copy of Office XP
Like to try to guess which one he would pick?
And yes, Microsoft has been making people's life in Malaysia a misery with aid from their eternal friend, the BSA. As for why piracy is so prevalant here, you know the answer as well as I do. Strange to think why Microsoft wants to crack down on Malaysia (and other asian countries) when their gross profit EQUALS OR EXCEEDS that of the annual budget of this country (and many others, no doubt).
Maybe it's due to their "It's OUR goddamned software, so if you can't afford it DON'T touch it, even if you need it. And forget it, it remains at that price. Because we can afford to price it so. Why should we cut our lofty margins just so that you could lay your grimy hands on our most excellent and bug free Windows (TM) products? Therefore, Buzz Off. We don't need the looks of you" attitude.
Lovely way to treat 80% of the Asian population. Care to guess if I like Microsoft?
Considering the amount of clout that America wields over the rest of the world, I shudder to think about what would happen (and I can see this beginning to happen) when massive corporates who answer only to the almightly dollar and nothing else (Certainly not to people, apart from shareholders), start exerting their influence over the US government and other bodies (eg WTO) to force policies down the throat of 3rd world countries. This applies not only to software companies. One can safely include the entertainment industry (You know who) and IP companies.
I think this person just doesn't understand how our country works. My first comment deals with this sentence:
"Maybe it's due to their "It's OUR goddamned software, so if you can't afford it DON'T touch it, even if you need it."
Last time I checked, having a computer with the latest OS and Office suite was a luxury and not needed for survival. I think this person thinks that our country should be socialist (probably like thiers) and everything should just be given to them for free. That's not the way it works though, in our country you work for what you want. If you want the latest OS and Office, you work for it. Maybe change professions or something. Sure, MS may have the price a bit too high, but maybe they would lower the price a bit if you people would actually buy the stuff instead of stealing it. Would you blame a store for having high prices if 90% of their merchandise were stolen? IMO, this is just another socialist who doesn't like America and the way we do things over here.
AFTER READING THE COMMENTARY regarding the excerpt from the "Malaysian Star" (Piracy allowed in schools), I thought you would be delighted to like to know a few more things about this lovely country.
The average monthly pay of a citizen (and most definitely that of a civil servant, of which I happen to be one) is LESS than that of 1 legal copy of Microsoft Office + OS. And that costs about as much as a brand new computer.
So, our hypothetical citizen can either:
1) spend a month's salary on food stuff, petrol, rent, detergent, baby stuff etc etc AND one copy of pirated windows OR
2) Buy one copy of Office XP
Like to try to guess which one he would pick?
And yes, Microsoft has been making people's life in Malaysia a misery with aid from their eternal friend, the BSA. As for why piracy is so prevalant here, you know the answer as well as I do. Strange to think why Microsoft wants to crack down on Malaysia (and other asian countries) when their gross profit EQUALS OR EXCEEDS that of the annual budget of this country (and many others, no doubt).
Maybe it's due to their "It's OUR goddamned software, so if you can't afford it DON'T touch it, even if you need it. And forget it, it remains at that price. Because we can afford to price it so. Why should we cut our lofty margins just so that you could lay your grimy hands on our most excellent and bug free Windows (TM) products? Therefore, Buzz Off. We don't need the looks of you" attitude.
Lovely way to treat 80% of the Asian population. Care to guess if I like Microsoft?
Considering the amount of clout that America wields over the rest of the world, I shudder to think about what would happen (and I can see this beginning to happen) when massive corporates who answer only to the almightly dollar and nothing else (Certainly not to people, apart from shareholders), start exerting their influence over the US government and other bodies (eg WTO) to force policies down the throat of 3rd world countries. This applies not only to software companies. One can safely include the entertainment industry (You know who) and IP companies.
I think this person just doesn't understand how our country works. My first comment deals with this sentence:
"Maybe it's due to their "It's OUR goddamned software, so if you can't afford it DON'T touch it, even if you need it."
Last time I checked, having a computer with the latest OS and Office suite was a luxury and not needed for survival. I think this person thinks that our country should be socialist (probably like thiers) and everything should just be given to them for free. That's not the way it works though, in our country you work for what you want. If you want the latest OS and Office, you work for it. Maybe change professions or something. Sure, MS may have the price a bit too high, but maybe they would lower the price a bit if you people would actually buy the stuff instead of stealing it. Would you blame a store for having high prices if 90% of their merchandise were stolen? IMO, this is just another socialist who doesn't like America and the way we do things over here.
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