Microsoft's answer to those using fake Windows - Screen Blackout

8/29/2008 in Umum

KUALA LUMPUR, WED:

Screen blackout? This is software giant Microsofts latest strategic measure in its war against piracy campaign dubbed as Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA).

For the next five weeks beginning today, users of pirated versions of the Windows operating system will encounter a plain black background with pop-up window alert, said Microsoft Malaysias director of client business group, K.T.Ng.

The users will be able to reset the background to the original setting but every 60 minutes the computer will be reset to the plain black background and the persistent notice will remain until a genuine copy of Windows is installed and validated. “It is also about giving genuine users an assurance and protecting them,” Ng said.

In 2005 when Microsoft started WGA, for every 10 personal computers that went for validation, only 3.5 passed, but now after almost two years, 70 percent of the personal computers that went for validation passed, he told Bernama in an interview. “We are aiming for very high passing rates in the future,” he said.

Hence, WGA has played a greater role educating the people on genuine software as well as helping to reduce the software piracy rate in Malaysia, according to Ng.

So far, he said, the Malaysian government in collaborating with the industry has managed to bring down the piracy rate to 59 percent from 70 percent 10 years ago.

“The education process is very important and once they start using genuine software and see the benefits for themselves, they will appreciate it,” he added.

Asked if price was a factor in users choosing pirated software, Ng said that Microsoft on its part has come up with affordable rates.For instance, he said, users can purchase a Window Vista Basic at RM250 and the company has also worked together with various parties to come up with ultra low-cost personal computers with Windows XP installed at less than RM80.

Ng said users were mostly unaware that using pirated software made their computers vulnerable to virus attacks, which could result in the loss of all data stored in the computers.

“That kind of cost (of losing the data) is a lot more rather than the initial savings of RM50 or RM60. So that is very important,” he said.

Ng said software purchases were critical decisions for any business and many users did not know that they were the victims of piracy.

Microsofts anti-piracy programmes are designed to help ensure that people receive the high quality, legal product they thought they paid for and when people discovered they have been the victims of piracy, Microsoft offered a number of get genuine programmes to help them out, he said.

Multimedia Development Corporation’s general manager, global profiling and portfolio management, Rizatuddin Ramli, said it is supportive of measures that stimulate and promote an intellectual property (IP) culture in Malaysia.

“Microsofts WGA initiative is one method that bodes well towards realising this behaviour among Malaysians,” he said.

Rizatuddin said IP rights in software and services provided local software houses the intellectual assets for economic value of their work in creating solutions for the marketplace.

“We would like to see acts of piracy and disregard for others IP eventually diminished as MSC Malaysia promotes respect for innovation and creation of IP,” he said.

International Association of Software Architects president Hasan Ganny Hanif said a reduction in the piracy rate will promote the development of Malaysia into a full-fledged knowledge economy, acknowledging the contribution of IP.

“At the same time, this also provides assurance to local software providers that their ’Made-in-Malaysia’ innovations will be protected and that they are able to the reap the rewards of their development and ideas that go into such innovations,” he said.

The association is also confident that Microsoft’s WGA programme will go some way towards reducing the country’s piracy rate and helping to shape a culture that respects IP, he added.

source - NST Online > Newsbreak

*siot ape~seb bek window aku ori.