Pirated Vista - Why would you want it?

I actually like the look of the new MS Office (though the lack of customisation options is worrying) and am at least curious enough to give the trials a test run, but Vista leaves me completely cold. The ads with the tag lines about how sometimes something comes along that just make you go “WOW” also doesn’t help the overall feeling that it is lacklustre and not really worth the great expense and locking into what will be an increasingly proprietary system.

Anyway, the news is that pirated versions are showing up on the streets of Mexico and Brazil. It wouldn’t surprise me if Vista doesn’t do as well as XP that it gets blamed on piracy (it’s a good scapegoat). Thing is I’m a fairly early adopter as far as the general population goes, I’m a sad git that covets speccy hardware over the latest designer handbag (okay maybe that’s not so sad) and I’m not even slightly tempted. [Will add links to the reports that put me off later]

Pirated and workable versions of XP were all over the place when it came out despite the complicated online verification system they created. Its DRM was cracked in a second. Point is, XP did mighty fine with all the masses of piracy around. I doubt very much that Vista is plagued by so much more piracy that it would warrant any special attention over what XP got.

What I found particularly worrying about this story was this:

Police in many Latin American cities are struggling to fight violent crime and mostly turn a blind eye to what they see as minor offences like film, music and software pirating. Often on low pay, police are susceptible to bribes.

Are they suggesting that they divert their attention from fighting violent crime in order to police intellectual property infringement? Do we have any sense of priorities? How on earth did protecting the interests of the biggest company in the world become more important than ensuring people’s basic human right to be free from physical harm?

Despite all the prosecutions, nothing much seems to have changed:

The Mexican attorney general’s office says it busted thousands of piracy operations in 2006 and seized millions of counterfeit items. But it is fighting a losing battle. “We’ve seized hundreds of (CD and DVD) burners but the industry generates enough cash to carry on,” a spokesman said.

Sometimes I wonder what is the point anyway, it is just like throwing
money into a big hole. The line sold to countries like Mexico by the likes of the Business Software Alliance (who in this story estimate that “some 65% of software programs sold in Mexico are illegal
copies”) is that strong software regimes=strong native industries. To use Francis Wheen’s imagery (How Mumbo Jumbo Conquered the World), it sounds like the spiel from a snake-oil salesman.

Aren’t there better ways to spend this money? Maybe on education, health and preventing more violent crimes? Mightn’t that help build your country’s economy and society more than cracking down on copyright infringements?

Though, I do like the metaphor from the Business Software Alliance’s Mexico
director, Kiyoshi Tsuru, explaining how buying pirated software might not work like the original product:

“The other day, someone said to me: ‘It’s like leaving your son in the care of a prostitute.’ Likewise I couldn’t entrust my machine … to a criminal,” Tsuru said.

It’s really quite funny. I wouldn’t entrust my machine to Vista in its present form, pirated or official. Even if each copy was free and came with a $200 voucher. It’s a lousy product. And it might not even play my iTunes at this stage.

Articles quoted:
Pirated Vista being hawked in S America - Sydney Morning Herald (7 Feb 07)

iTunes users warned over Vista upgrade - Sydney Morning Herald (5 Feb 07)