The more counterfeit software companies use in their networks, the greater their risk of encountering IT related problems, according to a new Harrison Group study commissioned byMicrosoft. The study compared midmarket companies (defined as firms with between 24 and 500 PCs) in the U.S., U.K., China, and Brazil that use fully licensed software with ones that have allowed pirated software to play a role in their operations, in a comparison not unlike the 'Goofus And Gallant' cartoon of Highlights magazine fame.In a Monday blog post, Alex Kochis, senior product manager in the Windows Genuine Advantage group, said companies that use pirated software are more likely to encounter system failures that lead to data loss and employee downtime. "The biggest difference between companies that are committed to using genuine software and those that aren't relates to loss of sensitive data and critical system failures that impact more employees and customers," Kochis wrote.
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as to the article: all I can say is: duh!
really doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out
I think that's exactly the point...
"companies that use pirated software are more likely to encounter system failures that lead to data loss and employee downtime. "
They aren't saying that purchasing licenses increases uptime, they are saying using pirated software can cause problems. Pirated software isn't just stolen, it comes from an unknown and untrustworthy source. You have no idea if it's been modified or tampered with. It's not hard for a criminal to put out a copy of XP SP2 out there that has malware tucked away inside.
Yes, from unknown sources is just plain stupid to install. But Microsoft would really like to have people pay for every copy, and increase revenue and give the best return on investment to stockholders.
And that is what this is really all about.
There's a lot of it around folks. Dont be dumb enough to take it seriously and consequently discuss it to death.
The guy didn't speak in favor of piracy, and I believe he called this for what it is correctly. Here are some choice quotes from the article about why pirated software is so bad:
"The biggest difference between companies that are committed to using genuine software and those that aren't relates to loss of sensitive data and critical system failures that impact more employees and customers," Kochis wrote.
"Businesses using fully licensed software report they're growing faster, are more profitable, and are more likely to be leaders in their market as opposed to those using a mix of genuine and unlicensed software," Kochis wrote.
Businesses that decide to permit the use of counterfeit software also run the risk of upsetting their employees, and potentially cause them to take less pride in their chosen place of employment, Kochis wrote.
Microsoft is saying that pirated software - simply by virtue of being illegal - is inferior to the genuine product and will "invite disaster." Full stop. Any arguments about how pirated sources are not trustworthy are correct, but that isn't what's being said here.
This situation reminds me of my undergraduate university's IT department. A friend of mine sought my advice about some computer trouble she was having, and I diagnosed it as a failing hard drive. A few weeks later, the drive completely failed. My friend went to the IT department to see if they could do anything for her, but all they could do was confirm that the drive had died. She asked them what could cause a drive to fail. In response, they asked her if she downloaded MP3s. When she said that she did, they told her that downloading MP3s could cause a hard drive to fail.
Yes, technically you could burn out your HD on downloads, but that's unrealistic. The IT department was probably just trying to spread some FUD so as to cut back on student P2P usage. Similarly, what Microsoft is doing here is spreading FUD in an effort to get people to stop using pirated software at all. I'm surprised at how many of you are jumping in to defend their garbage reasoning, although at least many of the arguments here are sensible.
Try downloading pirated copies of BigFish Games, chances are, you will encounter versions whose installers are counterfeited with malware injections. The moment you install the game, you already triggered the installation of trojans.
The only way to get around with this is to install these in sandboxes or VMs. That's why it's Not a good idea to use pirated software in the real workplace.
I can has independent study?
I can't see how pirating software would open companies up to loss of customer data and so on any more than using legit software would.
I can't see how pirating software would open companies up to loss of customer data and so on any more than using legit software would.
Yah..it must be near impossible for someone to sneak a trojan in a copy of xp and throw it on net. Noone would ever do that!
Pirate copies of XP = normal XP with working serial
or even better, modified to always pass WGA and remove the useless 'phone home' which wastes bandwidth (picture if you have a company with 10,000 PCs), and usually has awesome modifications like removal of the 10 TCP connections at any time and patched UXtheme.dll. And most copy protection (mainly with games) is removed, therefore allowing faster running because it isn't running a compressed executable system with a load of random crap thrown in to always check for certain data and stuff. On and talk about inconviencing legit users, example: spore
I think that is what Microsoft is talking about the fact is you can't truly trust the source of a pirated copy of anything so would you really what your company and important data on a non trustworthy OS?
I have seen on these very forums post on the need for copy protection that does not need the CD inserted every time you play a game. Now that games are starting to come out with that very thing all we can do is complain about that. The way it is going PC gamers are going to complain themselves right out of the market.
half a million people can't be wrong, and seeing as EA even admitted they screwed themself over with the DRM.
Oh and speaking of DRM, http://neowin.net/news/main/08/10/01/walma...own-drm-servers
I agree you can get dodgy versions of applications pirated, thats the chance you take with pirated stuff.
And stuff copy protection like that, its just the same as sonys rootkit, which is why the newest game I've got is F.E.A.R. off direct-to-drive, got that crack for that so I can play it on any pc I own without an internet connection and so it doesn't have countless loops of copyprotect(crap); functions, got a massive speed improvement. 2nd latest game I own is red alert 2, and again with a No-CD patch, if the serial numbers wrong it doesn't let you play (blows up everything when you start) and I'm fine with that.
Yeah. And look at how many people have replied on how bs this is. Pretty sad.
I'm not defending companies which foolishly use pirated software, but what a load of bollocks.
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