Wouldn't Microsoft be better off without anti-piracy measures?

[Leros]

It seems to me that if Microsoft were stop their anti-piracy measures, they would be better off. Business would still buy Windows to stay legal, OEMs would still buy Windows to stay legal and a portion of the DIYers would buy Windows to stay legal.

As far as I can tell, this leaves a small group that would pirate. Not having anti-piracy measures might prevent some people from switching to Linux which is good for Microsoft. Plus, Windows will be pirated no matter what and its not really worth the hassle to their paying consumers (false positives, extra WGA software, etc).

Am I missing something?

 

[BatmanNate]

It seems to work OK for Apple.

 

[FoBoT]

http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/default.mspx

Pirated software hurts everyone?from software developers to retail store owners, and ultimately to all software users. The illegal duplication and distribution of software has a significant impact on the economy, costing the United States billions of dollars a year in job losses, retail dollar losses, and governmental tax losses?money that would have gone back into local communities. In addition, companies facing loss of revenue due to piracy must pull resources from the development of new technology, and devote it to protecting both their software, and its legitimate users. In the end, software piracy is unfair to everyone.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: BatmanNate
It seems to work OK for Apple.

Apple has people tied down to hardware so its not as big of deal for them. You have to buy a $2000 computer to run their software so pirating the OS isn't as big of a deal.

 

[bobdelt]

Originally posted by: Leros
It seems to me that if Microsoft were stop their anti-piracy measures, they would be better off. Business would still buy Windows to stay legal, OEMs would still buy Windows to stay legal and a portion of the DIYers would buy Windows to stay legal.

As far as I can tell, this leaves a small group that would pirate. Not having anti-piracy measures might prevent some people from switching to Linux which is good for Microsoft. Plus, Windows will be pirated no matter what and its not really worth the hassle to their paying consumers (false positives, extra WGA software, etc).

Am I missing something?

That would work in the states...

But what about hte rest of the world? Where business and oems there will sell pirated version....