Pirated Versions of Windows 7 Selling for Rs 50/<$2
Looks like Microsoft’s piracy woes in Asian countries is not going to end very soon. Even before Microsoft has officially* begun retailing copies of Windows 7 DVDs in India, the bootleggers are already offering pirated copies of Windows 7 for sale for Rs 50, or approximately $1.20.
That is way below the retail price of Windows 7, which is priced at $219 for the Home Premium version, and $120 for the upgrade to the same version. This might come as a huge blow to Microsoft, who have yet to set a foot in the Indian market with Windows 7 sales. Of course, owners of bootlegged copies may not be able to activate their copies of Windows, but you can expect a workaround for that too.
Quite sometime back Microsoft had offered to sell Microsoft Office for $29 in China, this again was done to tackle the software piracy in China. Microsoft is also offering Windows 7 at a discount of up to 40% in India to curtail piracy, but will it work? Only time will tell.
* Microsoft has currently put the sale of Windows 7 on hold in India, due to the upcoming Budget, where the taxes on software may be changed.
Debajyoti Das
October 29th, 2009 at 10:48 am #
Piracy can’t be stopped with Discounts …. Some kind of copy protection on the DVDs may work… if possible
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Keith Dsouza Reply:
October 31st, 2009 at 1:27 am
@Debajyoti I agree with you on this. No matter how hard they try the copies of Windows 7 will be pirated. The good thing is that they have a proper working activation process to thwart such pirated copies.
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Jeff
October 31st, 2009 at 12:45 pm #
some people say Microsoft does not want to eliminate piracy intentionally because they want to get as much market share as possible and this is not possible without piracy esp., in developing countries.
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Vizz Media
November 16th, 2009 at 9:05 am #
Windows 7 goes to retail in India 15th nov 09 onwards. It being the most promising system so far with vista-like design capabilities and performance better than XP.
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