Ben Reid
19 Oct 2006 11:46
Microsoft Corp.'s latest tactic against those pirating its software in the U.K. appears to be paying off, and has reduced the piracy rate sooner than expected.
The software maker's "Keep IT Real" programme, which it first launched back in February, has seen piracy rate for its Windows XP operating system drop from 16.7 percent to 12.4 percent according to its head of antipiracy for the U.K., Michala Alexander. "We were really pleased to see the rate dropping so quickly," she said.
Microsoft had originally hoped to reduce the rate to 11.7 percent within three years of starting the campaign -- in which members of the company's anti-piracy team visit computer retailers and PC building outlets accross the U.K. inquiring about piracy issues -- but now aims to hit that goal by next February.
Microsoft also credits its Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) program for the piracy decline. The much criticized "phone home" technique, which checks with the company's servers to see if the OS copy is legitimate, appears to be working.
Microsoft will turn its sights now on pirated copies of its Office application, Alexander said. Up to 33 percent of the copies of Office are not authorized software, with copies often casually shared between friends. The company now uses a WGA-like tool which checks to see if copies of Office are legitimate. About 1 million people in the U.K. have been checked so far.
Source:
infoworld