Romania’s President tells Bill Gates that software piracy helped his country

Published on February 2nd, 2007

Posted by SN in General

Aharg, matey!

The Register – Friday 2nd February 2007:

Romania’s president delivered an encomium to software piracy during Bill Gates’ world tour promoting Windows Vista.

President Traian Basescu reportedly told Gates that software piracy helped build a vibrant technology industry in Romania.

Appearing with Gates at the opening of a Microsoft global technology center in Bucharest, he said. “Piracy helped the young generation discover computers. It set off the development of the IT industry in Romania,” he said. Cue sound of Microsoft PR jaws dropping.

“[Piracy] helped Romanians improve their creative capacity in the IT industry, which has become famous around the world… ten years ago, it was an investment in Romania’s friendship with Microsoft and with Bill Gates.”

Gates is not reported to have responded, but his company campaigns against piracy and works vigorously with prosecutors to bring criminals to justice.

18 users responded in " Romania’s President tells Bill Gates that software piracy helped his country "

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# 1 Mark Derail said, on February 2nd, 2007 at 10:19 am

What I’ve been saying all along.

MS turned a blind eye to this problem, because :

1. they wanted market dominance

2. they were making exponential amounts of money

Now that #1 is accomplished, and #2 is no longer exponential but constant, MS bugs the hell out of us paying & legal customers with WGA.

I just change the NIC or Video Card and I now have to redo my MS XP OEM key activation. With Vista OEM, that won’t work anymore, right? Not even changing the PC, just upgrading it.

Now if MS was the philanthropist that Gates is, they would license all of MS software to a third world / developing country with a free 5 year MSDN license scheme.

At the end of 5 years, time’s up. Pay yearly for MSDN renewal or buy all the software you’re using….!Boom! New revenue stream.

# 2 GregA said, on February 2nd, 2007 at 10:34 am

Mark,

You are an IT professional. How do you feel knowing that the IT professionals in Romania don’t have to build the price of software into their product prices? Do you think there is an element of unfair competition in that?

Here in the US commercial shops have elaborate licensing requirments to defend ourselves from a BSA audit. I am acutally happy about activation schemes in software. That means as long as I don’t crack the software activation schemes, I never have to fear a BSA audit.

Also, software prices are coming down actually. About 12 years ago, when I started this job, we paid almost $70,000 for our accounting system. I was never really happy with it. We are reviewing our accounting system now, even though we have about 10x as many users now, it will only cost about $40,000. All the companies now let me demo their software fully, before commiting to buying it.

# 3 pedro said, on February 2nd, 2007 at 11:04 am

So, this are some of the sons of a gun that we have to thank for all this activation crap, huh?

No wonder they’re best friends

# 4 Terry said, on February 2nd, 2007 at 11:14 am

#2 GregA – what software has come out of Romania? The only one that comes to mind for me is AIDA, and I’m not even sure that was Romanian.

# 5 Mark Derail said, on February 2nd, 2007 at 11:16 am

GregA, some good points.

Unfair competition within my own country, I cry fowl. My clients don’t want to deal with huge time lags and language barriers. So Canadian IT’s have it good with US customers, and vice-versa.

Having been audited some four years ago (and passed!) by the RCMP – when they did a blanket audit of all businesses – when MS realized they weren’t making any more exponential profits. Of course other non-MS were backing this move.

So I consider my company as fair competition, that I can charge less than Toronto-based or New York-based IT’s, because cost of living & operations are cheaper in Quebec.

Now in India / Asia, they have people with MS certifications that work for a few dollars a day, instead of per hour, is that unfair?
It is if they use all pirated software, and I don’t like it.

However, do they affect me directly? No.
We’ve been seeing a backlash effect, more outsourcing companies working with US or Canada only, because we can be held accountable (and sued) and speak the same English.

Premium pricing for software in the past, was mostly because everything was so new, demand was high, and very little competition.
Plus, it was the common practice to over-charge the licenses.

An accounting software package at 40K$ makes sense if you pay a license flat rage, a Per-User flat rate, then a yearly update plan, and it can be customized (language, reports).

Then you have to buy Win2k3 Enterprise, and MS-SQL Enterprise or Oracle, separately.
In the 70K$ the database license was most likely included. Hidden licensing costs that the end-user company has to pay.

Database engine costs have plummeted in the last 5 years, due to competition.

# 6 mandarin said, on February 2nd, 2007 at 11:33 am

Hehe nice picture. Reminds me of Mad magazine for some reason…

# 7 OhForTheLoveOf said, on February 2nd, 2007 at 11:56 am

That picture is a hoot

# 8 ECA said, on February 2nd, 2007 at 12:02 pm

Keys.
1. it just isnt the Asia pacific thats hacking everything.
2. an OPEN environment, is something that can be learned from, and NOT just taught.
3. we learn to play with our tools, do you THINK vista will let that happen.
4. For all MS has said about the XB360, and how it will be use-able and programmable, and MAYBE hackable, they installed so much security int he device that its STILL a pain to deal with…Compare it to Wii and all the fun that is being had.

# 9 SN said, on February 2nd, 2007 at 12:23 pm

6. “Hehe nice picture. Reminds me of Mad magazine for some reason…”

I was thinking of a cross somewhere between Alfred E. Neuman and a James Bond villain.

# 10 sdf said, on February 2nd, 2007 at 12:34 pm

Jeez, Paul Anka gets no respect

# 11 Robert said, on February 2nd, 2007 at 2:10 pm

Basescu has a point. Software piracy in eastern Europe and Asia does much more damage to the Linux group than to Microsoft. Linux very badly needs more marketshare.

# 12 Robert said, on February 2nd, 2007 at 2:16 pm

Mark,

That’s a good point. But it applies a lot more to India and China than Romania. American tech workers are not losing a lot of jobs to Romania. If tech workers in India and China are indeed using pirated software, that is extremely unfair to American workers and small American tech companies

# 13 lucian said, on February 3rd, 2007 at 5:42 am

Man, I’m from Bucharest Romania and I saw live all the meeting between Basescu and Gates. Facts that you, americans, don’t know:

1. Basescu is a former marineer. He was ship captain, so its somehow logical to be so friendly towards… pirates.

2. Basescu is crazy. C-R-A-Z-Y. That’s why some politicians have started impeachement procedure against him a few days ago.

3. I wouldn’t be so mad about piracy in Romania. 3.1 because it is going down year after year , that’s a fact, and we pirated simply because we had no access to international markets (should I remember that Paypal still doesn’t accept payments from Romania?). When I first bought CoffeeCup Software 4 years ago I had to buy it via a cousin from Canada, because they have told me frankly: “We don’t sell in Romania.” My cousin bought it then I got it. 3.2 From an economic point of view, it’s not so bad. There are currently thousands of Romanian IT technicians working in USA. Romania paid through the years for their education ~500.000 USD for each, and now it has no benefits. Assuming that there are only 1000 Romanian IT’s in America, results that Romania spent 500.000.000 USD with no benefits. We paid a lot of money in order to sent to America thousands of IT’s. Who is more prejudiced? Romania or corporations?

# 14 Reality said, on February 3rd, 2007 at 10:11 pm

If Bill Gates wanted to prevent piracy, he would be selling Vista Ultimate for $100 instead of $500.

# 15 Dan said, on February 8th, 2007 at 9:32 am

@Terry:
“what software has come out of Romania? The only one that comes to mind for me is AIDA, and I’m not even sure that was Romanian. ”

Lots of security and anti-malware/antivirus software is made in Romania. Windows Defender, embedded in current Windows versions was built on Bit Defender, a Romanian antivirus (somewhat ironic in this context, isn’t it?). However, most of the Romanian companies write software components for large foreign companies, a pretty anonymous job.

@GregA, regarding piracy in Romania: almost 100% of the pirated software comprises of Windows and MS Office copies and games for home use. Romanian companies ALWAYS pay for the software they use.

Although game piracy is decreasing, it is still high. Nevertheless, gaming appetite in eastern european countries fueled an interesting gaming industry. Nowadays, the most complex games, like for instance simulations, are written in these countries, because the high development costs made them too risky for western companies. For example Silent Hunter III was made in Romania, Il-2 Sturmovik in Russia, LOMAC in Ukraine.

Romania had some benefits in these circumstances but also lost a lot. There are more Romanian IT specialists and Computer Science researchers working outside Romania than in Romania. All of these highly trained specialists received free education up to graduate level (recently the situation might have changed a bit, but not significantly). Romania invested a lot of money in their training but it will receive nothing in response.

# 16 sweetmiraidra said, on February 13th, 2007 at 2:03 pm

Hello everybody,
I’m a 35 years old woman, divorced and with children. I work as geography teacher, part-time, so I can use the time to take care of my family and and I’ve found my equilibrium doing like this. During the endless spent in my house i like to do something, in particular that is watching foreign channes on my tv computer . I also love to watch cartoons. I don
‘t evoidnot at every hour but often to see the wheater forecast either.
I am pretty sadisfied with what I have and overall about my children. I just hope to stay health, so just an normal happy life.
‘ll see you
Debby

# 17 piticutz said, on February 27th, 2007 at 3:03 pm

Hello beautiful people,
Just want to remind you about the aprox. 400 Romanian Microsoft employees as well as about the Microsoft’s Windows Defender, former Romanian BitDefender. This are quite good achievements for such a small population (22 millions).
To the people complaining about unfair conditions of development of an IT professional in USA compared to Romania, where software was “for free”/pirated I would just like to point out that the simple fact of owning a computer and an Internet connection was a burdain for the average Romanian. Salary there is stil at an average of some hundred dollars per month.
Finally, for all Americans – stop comparing all systems in the world to yours. Just understand two important (and ver real) facts:
1-there are different geo-political factors that make different systems, well…different. What is science fiction and movie and nightmare to one is bloody reality for another.
2-your own system is imperfect so stop looking down at others.
Now, this that I said is not to attract venomous replies and bad words. I deared to say it just because we are all IT here (I presume) so we have a higher IQ and comprehension of reality than the common citizen.
Wish you best,
piticutz

# 18 piticutz said, on February 27th, 2007 at 3:09 pm

Sorry, I forgot to say this so I’m back… about presidents – apart from the picture and just judgeing facts – who looks more like a pirate, Constantinescu or Bush? Come on, people, the guy with the patch in the picture stays at least within own borders and does not order bombings of civilians in places he does not know to point on the map:)

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