interesting story

[Gregory Nowak]

Yeah. A friend of mine surprised me the other day by cheerfully informing me that he's got a cd of a cracked copy of windows xp.
Greg


On Wed, May 15, 2002 at 03:22:42PM -0400, Alex Snow wrote:
> Sounds just like Microcrap. Hypocritical.
> And about that xp activation thing, it's been cracked.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Igor Gueths" <igueths at attbi.com>
> To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2002 7:33 PM
> Subject: interesting story
> 
> 
> Hi all. Hope this is of interest.
> 
>                       Did Microsoft Flirt With Piracy?
> 
>                   Complaints about open-source software policy reveal piracy
> rap
>                   in France.
>                   Kim Zetter, special to PCWorld.com
>                   Thursday, May 09, 2002
>                   While Microsoft cracks down on software pirates the world
>                   over, the software giant itself was quietly convicted of
>                   piracy charges in France last fall--and the case, while
>                   supposedly under appeal, may cost the company some
> business.
>                   The French division of Microsoft is facing a fine of about
>                   $422,000 for illegal use of another company's source code
> in
>                   an animation program called Softimage 3D. The program has
> been
>                   used to create such films as The Matrix, Men in Black, and
>                   Star Wars. But the dispute itself was cited by a
> governmental
>                   buyer who contends Microsoft should not complain about
> pirates
>                   when it is guilty of the same transgression. Microsoft did
> not
>                   respond to requests for comment.
>                   Borrowed Code
>                   The issue started in 1995 when Microsoft France purchased
>                   Softimage, a Canadian company that developed the 3D CGI
>                   animation program Softimage 3D. The acquired company was
>                   accused of illegally lifting source code from a
> proprietary
>                   program called Character, developed by the owners of Syn'x
>                   Relief, a company near Paris.
>                   In 1994, Softimage had negotiated with Syn'x about
> integrating
>                   parts of the Character program into Softimage 3D. But the
> deal
>                   fell through when Softimage demanded all rights to the
> code,
>                   according to a report in PC World Malta. In 1995, when
> Syn'x
>                   severed its relationship with Microsoft-Softimage, the
> company
>                   assured Syn'x that it had removed "some or all" of
> Character
>                   from its software. But Syn'x charges that
> Microsoft-Softimage
>                   removed only one part of the code, and retained eight
> other
>                   functions that Character's developers had registered with
> the
>                   French National Intellectual Property Institute.
>                   After Syn'x sent two letters to Softimage and Microsoft
>                   demanding the functions be removed, the company filed
> suit. In
>                   1998, Microsoft sold Softimage to Avid Technologies but
>                   remained responsible for the legal infringements of its
> former
>                   wholly owned subsidiary.
>                   Although Syn'x eventually fell into bankruptcy as a result
> of
>                   the case, the program's authors continued their fight.
> Last
>                   September the Commercial Court of Nanterre, France,
> awarded
>                   Syn'x the judgment for damages and interest. Microsoft has
>                   vowed to appeal the decision.
>                   Sales Pitch Rebuffed
>                   Microsoft's brush with piracy in France came to light only
>                   this week. The case was overshadowed at the time by the
> focus
>                   on the September 11 terrorist attacks. But recently a
> Peruvian
>                   congressman raised the issue in regard to a Microsoft
>                   contract.
>                   Dr. Edgar David Villanueva Nuñez corresponded in April
> with
>                   Microsoft's general manager in Peru over proposed
> legislation
>                   there that would require any software used by the Peruvian
>                   government to be open source (or "free software," as it's
>                   referred to in Peru). Microsoft representatives protested
> the
>                   plan, writing the congressman that producing open-source
>                   software makes a software company vulnerable to piracy of
> its
>                   intellectual property by competitors. If Peru mandates the
> use
>                   of open-source software by government agencies, it "would
>                   establish discriminatory and noncompetitive practices in
> the
>                   contracting and purchasing" of software by public bodies,
>                   Microsoft stated.
>                   Nuñez was apparently not persuaded. He replied to
> Microsoft:
>                   "The inclusion of the intellectual property of others in
> works
>                   claimed as one's own is not a practice that has been noted
> in
>                   the [open-source] software community; whereas,
> unfortunately,
>                   it has been in the area of proprietary software." He cited
>                   specifically Microsoft's conviction by the Commercial
> Court of
>                   France, "for violation of intellectual property (piracy,
> to
>                   use the unfortunate term that your firm commonly uses in
> its
>                   publicity)."
>                   Meanwhile, Microsoft remains one of the most outspoken
> critics
>                   of piracy, aggressively pursuing violators and urging
>                   authorities to crack down on anyone who illegally copies
> its
>                   software. The company even went so far as to include an
>                   Activation Wizard in Windows XP, which prevents customers
> from
>                   loading a single copy of XP onto more than one PC. The
> company
>                   amended the policy after user outcry.
> 
> 
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