Compare the lawsuit opportunity to the RIAA: The RIAA sues for downloading hundreds of $1 songs by dozens of artists, owned by many different studios, and it is difficult to track who has downloaded what. Microsoft can sue for illegal use of one software package that costs (retail) hundreds of pounds/dollars/euros each, is created and owned by itself, and it knows whether it is pirated or not.
The only reason MS doesn't sue users is because it doesn't want to scare them off. But if the number of pirated licenses keeps going up, then they'll have to starts, as they appear to be starting here. >From a corporate perspective, if one of my employees uses a pirated copy of MS Word to create documents for my company (which, I hear, record which installation was used to create the document, thereby tracking it to the priated MSO copy), my company may be liable for the use of illegal software, even if it's not created on one of our computers. Therefore, by simply using (licensed) MSO installations, I am encouraging my employees/professors/students to use MSO at home, and many will use a pirated version instead of paying full price. This means that MS could sue me (because they certainly wouldn't sue the users). If I use OOo, or even use MSO but encourage my members to use OOo at home, I risk nothing. This, I think, is the basis for a potential campaign: "Use OOo: It's free, so we can't/won't sue you". MS seems to be targeting OEMs, so our campaign can too. - RG> On 2/21/06, Lars D. Noodén <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Tue, 21 Feb 2006, Steven Pauwels wrote: > [snip] > > MS will never put up a 'public' campaign saying that non MS soft should be > > ignored. They do know that that will have exactly the opposite effect. > > Right. Which is why it would make sense to shake down the OEMs under the > guise of an anti-piracy campaign and make sure that they are only selling > MS software, with full payment to MS. Any shop selling computers, but not > 'enough' copies of MSO are likely to be targeted. My point would be that > it's easier to get in with the OEMs before MS has a chance to shut the > door again. Same goes for any advertising. > > Very good point about needing a marketing strategy here. I believe there > is a wiki page started on that ;) > > http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Short_Term_Marketing_Plan > > -Lars > Lars Nooden ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > Software patents endanger the legal certainty of software. > Keep them out of the EU by writing your MEP, keep the market open. > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
