NEW DELHI
FEBRUARY 22, 2007

At a time when, global software heavyweight Microsoft has gone all steam against software piracy in this region, its anti-piracy campaign has always remained an issue of controversy.

However, a big question was answered by the company's Chief Research and Strategy Officer when he said that the company is only going after big enterprises engaged in propelling 'commercial piracy' in the region. Interestingly he also mentioned that the company is not against small pirates.

"Piracy is not a huge global campaign for the company, but yes we are dealing with piracy in some countries like India. Piracy is a big issue for us. We are going after only the large-scale commercial pirates of software. We are not going after the very low scale pirates. We believe that they are the ones who will find value in our genuine software programmes and move to take genuine products from Microsoft," he added.

When asked about defining the role of technology in addressing software piracy, he said that technological advancements in the field of software have made it possible for Microsoft to actually know what kind of software its users are using.

"For many years, we have made a conscious choice of not imposing any hurdles in front of the user community when it came to the point of using our software products. But, today piracy is a big issue for us and we want to address this issue," he added.

Speaking about the concerns associated with piracy, Mundie said that concern towards better security is one of the primary drivers for the user community to embrace genuine software usage.

On the other hand, the company also believes that it is taking the help of technology in terms of addressing the question of affordability. "We are trying to evolve our business models here in India. We have realized that a good way to deal with the question of affordability is to try and make offers that deal with affordability. Flex-Go is one such technology that answers the question of affordability, where a user can access our computing environment on a 'pay as you go basis'. It lowers the acquisition cost for a user and yet it is all about using genuine software," he explained.

At a time when different software vendors are trying to address the affordability issue in different ways, Microsoft's Flex-Go can play an important role in terms of leading the way forward.

However on the other hand when it comes to the company's anti-piracy campaign in India, Microsoft is saying that this campaign is not targeted towards 'small pirates.' It is quite ironic to note that most of the company's efforts in this direction have gone against small to very small companies in not only big metros but small B and C class cities of the nation as well.

Suddenly finding themselves entangled in legal battles, most of these resellers in this region have chosen to settle these anti-piracy cases out of the court.
Craig Mundie, an old timer with Microsoft, was named to the new position of chief research and strategy officer of Microsoft in June 2006. He is working closely with Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates to assume responsibility for the company's research and incubation efforts - in anticipation of Gates' departure from a day-to-day role in Microsoft in July 2008. Mundie also partners with General Counsel Brad Smith to guide Microsoft's intellectual property and technology policy efforts.

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