Microsoft Piracy Losses

Did you ever thought about how large could be Microsoft's piracy losses? Well, I know most people don't really care about this, especially those that are using pirated products, but piracy could lead to some people remaining without a job, in the end, and I think this is the most important consequence of this modern plague. Anyway, while I think about people, Microsoft has a colder view of the whole deal. How? In the end, it's all about money, so the Redmond giant made public its concerns about "lost opportunities" due to piracy. Financial opportunities, obviously...

Leaving Microsoft aside for now, we'll look back 5 years for a short moment. Why? Because I want to remind you that, according to a IIPA report from 2003, the US economy lost over $9 billion in 2002 through copyright breaches in other countries, with almost $2 billion in China, where estimations were that motion picture piracy was at 91 percent, records and music piracy at 90 percent, business software piracy at 93 percent, and entertainment software piracy at 96 percent. Now, let's get back to the present day, shall we?

In 2008, Microsoft claims that for each dollar lost to software piracy, there are also lost opportunities worth $5.50, but what are these "lost opportunities," after all? While stolen software can slow down sales, as expected, especially in emerging countries("if I can get it for free, why pay for it?"), sometimes entire projects could be halted by the discovery of illegal copies. According to Microsoft, "in many emerging markets where legally licensed software is difficult even to obtain, it can be next to impossible for a legitimate partner to operate."

It seems those $5.50 are coming from increased revenues, combined with lower operational costs, but how Microsoft and the IDC are obtaining piracy figures leaves a lot of room for errors, and past proved that such errors occur pretty often.

Microsoft's director of License Compliance, Michael Beare, said "Even in a healthy ecosystem, illegal software causes hidden costs and friction in the sales and deployment processes. At its worst, rampant piracy in some economies is tearing down the opportunity for legitimate businesses to exist and thrive."

I have a brilliant idea, and I will gladly say it out loud, so Microsoft could use it - you want to avoid piracy? Then make them all free! I never heard of piracy when talking about software support, because that's what some free software companies do for a living, and they do it quite well!