Microsoft outlines three-pronged approach to piracy

Riyadi Suparno, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Martin Taylor, a high-ranking executive at Microsoft Corporation, once took a stroll at a Russian flea market and to his surprise found copies of Microsoft Office sold for only US$2 per CD -- far bellow the original price of around $100.

However, it was not only copies of Microsoft software that were sold $2 a piece but also copies of original music and movies. Any CD cost around $2.

Taylor then asked one of the sellers, "If I have a 100-dollar version of Microsoft Office, what will it take for you to sell it?" and the seller responded, "It will take 50 CDs." The seller showed Taylor a copy of a two-DVD movie and said, "It's two DVDs, and it's $4."

That conversation, according to Taylor, now Microsoft's general manager of platform strategy, shows the seller's association of values in terms of tangible assets, while the value of software was more intangible; the value of intellectual property rights.

Now, he said, it was his mission to educate people to put more value on intellectual property rights -- rather than through litigation against violators -- in a bid to fight piracy.

Speaking in Jakarta on Tuesday, Taylor highlighted a three- pronged strategy to beat piracy in any country, including Indonesia: Establishing law to protect intellectual property rights, enforcing the law and lastly educating the population on the value of using original products.

"A lot of noises have been made about the second (strategy), but we really need to focus on the third," he said.

Therefore, he said, Microsoft launched in 2003 its "Partners in Learning" program, where the company provides affordable computers and software at a heavily discounted prices to universities across the world.

Microsoft would give universities Microsoft Windows operating systems free and charge only $2.50 for Microsoft Office. "Actually, it costs more than $2.50 just to charge you that amount."

Microsoft has allocated a total fund of $1 billion for this project, that would end in 2008.

"Why do it? We want to educate people to value intellectual property rights. So, when these people (students) grow up in society, they will buy original products," he said.

Microsoft Indonesia president Tony Chen said in Indonesia Microsoft had partnered with 180 universities across the country, including some 60 state universities.

"Some rectors told me that it was important for university to use legal software. They want their students to respect intellectual property rights. Because they also do research as well ... they want their research to be respected too," Chen said.

In addition, Chen said Microsoft Indonesia also donates hardware and trains school teachers to use computers in a bid to help efforts to increase the ratio of computers to students, which currently stands at one PC to 847 students in Java and one PC to 1,900 students outside Java.

By educating younger generations to respect intellectual products, Microsoft hopes that more people in the future will voluntarily use original products.

When asked if that meant Microsoft Indonesia would forgo litigation efforts against those people who pirated its products, Chen said, "We would rather let the law enforcers to do the work to clamp down on them."

Widespread software piracy here means that according to the Business Software Alliance (BSA), illegal software accounts for 87 percent of all computer programs sold in the country.

Meanwhile, open-source programs such as those developed by Linux, account for only 2 percent.