All those running pirated Windows XP - read this!

[hungrygoose]

OK, let's say they sell 100 million copies. Let's say they also have 5,000 employees who make an average $30,000 a year.

10 million copies * $100 = $100,000,000
5000 * $30,000 = $150,000,000

Damn, these numbers just don't work out very well for you now do they?

I'm looking for accurate MS employment figures, BTW, I have no clue what they really are. But I'd imagine they have at least 5,000 people.

Viper GTS

no, but if they sold 100 million like you said at first:
100 million copies * $100 = $1,000,000,000
10,000 employees * *60,000 = 600,000,000
that seems pretty reasonable to me
and once again, they don't only make money off of the sale of the operating system itself!

 

[spyordie007]

Originally posted by: hungrygoose
and once again, let's try to remember that microsoft brings in money on more than just the sale of operating systems by themselves to consumers!....what about when dell agrees to put windows on every new system they build, what about those type of contracts?....let's not forget about that...

You think they make tons of money off each copy sold to OEMs? I wouldnt be surprised if they made less than $20 profit per copy when it's all said and done. The OEM buys it in bulk, and than MS does have it's costs setting up the contract, pressing, making the owner's guide (there's $10 right there) and shipping.

...i'm saying that if 1 million people came into office depot in three years and payed an average of $100/OS, that is $100,000,000 right there!....

again, you think MS makes $100 off each of those? Not a chance!

be realistic man, you're sitting here and arguing that microsoft is not making a sh*t load of money!! are you retarded??....check their freakin stock man....

he isnt arguing that MS is not making money, MS is making a large amount of money, but only because they ship thousands upon thousands of copys. On each individual copy of XP sold the margin is probably relatvily low.

-Spy

 

[spyordie007]

the real point here is that this is America, a capitalistic country.
In capitalism you have the right to create things and sell them, you can make the price anything you want.
If you set it up correctly you will make money, after all that is the American dream and the whole point of capitalism.
If you believe that MS owes you the OS, or updates to it than maybe you should have been part of the USSR; It's a damn shame that communism failed.

 

[Need4Speed]

Damn! I can't believe I'm actually back reading this thread....it's going absolutly no where. I'm going to try to sum it up for everyone so we can call it a day and move on to something more constructive.

1. Stealing is Stealing...whether a penny or a few hundreds bucks
2. Using software without a license is stealing
3. By using Windows you ARE supporting MS, whether the copy is legit or not
4. MS has the right to make as much money as they want...it's called free enterprise.
5. Two wrongs don't make a right
6. MS makes a bundle of money
7. OS's cost too much

Now we don't have to agree with what MS is doing, but those are the facts. No matter how you look at it. I'm shocked at how strong the opinions are in here. I could give a sh*t either way.

I'll tell you this though...if anyone of you had ownership in MS, you would want them to do well and charge as much for the software as the market could support. And it seems that the market does support those prices.

Even if windows cost 2.00 to buy, peeps would still copy it. Except this time the arguement would be "Hell it's only 2 bux".

No one is going to win this argument.....

 

[spyordie007]

Thank you N4S
I'm going to try and go back to life as usual now and get some work done

-Spy

 

[1611AV]

I agree with Need4Speed. Using software without a license is stealing income that should be going to the software company in exchange for your use of their software. Do all the moral/economic/etc. gymnastics you want. Using WaReZ in anything but a very short term try before you buy capacity is STEALING.

1611AV out...

 

[hungrygoose]

Originally posted by: spyordie007
the real point here is that this is America, a capitalistic country.
In capitalism you have the right to create things and sell them, you can make the price anything you want.
If you set it up correctly you will make money, after all that is the American dream and the whole point of capitalism.
If you believe that MS owes you the OS, or updates to it than maybe you should have been part of the USSR; It's a damn shame that communism failed.

that's a very good point, but the argument is that microsoft charges too much for their product.....i don't want it for free, i don't mind paying what i see as a reasonable price.....have they ever cut their prices??!!.....if you think about it, they are probably one of the only companies out their in the technology field that don't cut prices

 

[Viper GTS]

Originally posted by: hungrygoose

Originally posted by: spyordie007
the real point here is that this is America, a capitalistic country.
In capitalism you have the right to create things and sell them, you can make the price anything you want.
If you set it up correctly you will make money, after all that is the American dream and the whole point of capitalism.
If you believe that MS owes you the OS, or updates to it than maybe you should have been part of the USSR; It's a damn shame that communism failed.

that's a very good point, but the argument is that microsoft charges too much for their product.....i don't want it for free, i don't mind paying what i see as a reasonable price.....have they ever cut their prices??!!.....if you think about it, they are probably one of the only companies out their in the technology field that don't cut prices

Have you ever taken any economics classes?

Software is kind of a unique entity in that there is essentially an unlimited supply.

Still, however, economic rules apply.

To maximize profit, companies charge the highest price the market will bear.

Software does not become cheaper to produce, if anything it becomes more expensive.

Viper GTS

 

[WarCon]

Wow, never realized there were so many people that so desperately need to justify their crimes. I guess thats "relativism" speaking. You know the old, "I think its OK, so it must be OK".

capybara - I hope your not using Christ's words to justify crime. Because when asked about paying Caesar's taxes, he said give Caesar whats Caesars (He never OKed crime/sin no matter how immoral or unjust the person your doing it to is). Matter of fact he told the adulteress that the crowd (the one he said "He who is without sin cast the first stone" to) had been chasing to go forth and sin no more.

I personally am not happy that there are limited choices of OS's out there, but I don't think I would ever be able to look myself in the mirror and say Microsoft makes too much money so its ok to steal my copy.

 

[wjsulliv]

Could anybody stop this waist of time? You?re all bickering about why you can or can't have copies of MS products, and how moral or immoral it is to do so. How about we stick to the important questions that this thread doesn't seem to answer, and stay away from judging people or their actions.

1) Does anybody think they will or can actually do this? Not do they have a right to do this, but can they actually set up the software to dynamically crash/lock your pc? And if they can is that within the rights they have in the end user agreement? Keep in mind in order to catch the pirate copies they have to check all the copies in existence every time they update, including the non-pirate copies too.

2) Does anybody actually know which Keys are going to be locked?

3) Can you hack your registry or somewhere and change your key?

4) People mention that there are Key gen's out there for XP, are those for the corporate copies, or are those for retail copies? Do the corporate copies work for multiple Keys or just the retail copies?

 

[aircooled]

I've stayed a spectator on this thread just for the amusement.

I think all OS's should be $50 or less for home use, but thats just my opinion.

Just a thought....

When you finish a book and give it to a friend to read, is your friend stealing the story? You don't physically have the book anymore, but the story is already in your head. Your friend now has the story in his head without paying a dime to the publisher/author.

I'm not using this example to condone stealing software, but more of a: "why isn't this also considered theft?" and if it is "why is it not policed like software theft?"

 

[Need4Speed]

Originally posted by: wjsulliv
Could anybody stop this waist of time? You?re all bickering about why you can or can't have copies of MS products, and how moral or immoral it is to do so. How about we stick to the important questions that this thread doesn't seem to answer, and stay away from judging people or their actions.

1) Does anybody think they will or can actually do this? Not do they have a right to do this, but can they actually set up the software to dynamically crash/lock your pc? And if they can is that within the rights they have in the end user agreement? Keep in mind in order to catch the pirate copies they have to check all the copies in existence every time they update, including the non-pirate copies too.

2) Does anybody actually know which Keys are going to be locked?

3) Can you hack your registry or somewhere and change your key?

4) People mention that there are Key gen's out there for XP, are those for the corporate copies, or are those for retail copies? Do the corporate copies work for multiple Keys or just the retail copies?

The way I gather it, it's going to be a blacklist of keys thats embedded in the SP and patches. I assume it will be teh wildly used keys from the Delll fiasco and the DevilsOwn ISO release (Corp).

No need to hack your registry. you can use the sysprep tool on the cd to reset your installation to whats called "sealed" condition. Meaning next time you boot it will go through as if it was your first install...there you can enter a new key. This will leave all your apps and games working. It's like deleting all the hardware and system info, but leaving the registry in place. I've used in combination with Norton Ghost and it works great.

Thus, as long as your key is not on this blacklist, you should be ok....

 

[capybara]

Originally posted by: WarCon


capybara - I hope your not using Christ's words to justify crime. Because when asked about paying Caesar's taxes, he said give Caesar whats Caesars (He never OKed crime/sin no matter how immoral or unjust the person your doing it to is). Matter of fact he told the adulteress that the crowd (the one he said "He who is without sin cast the first stone" to) had been chasing to go forth and sin no more.

Amen, brother. A valid comparison. The moral alternative is to use linux.
Free, faster, more secure, more stable, better.
Linux is used by the NSA (National Security Administration) !!!
+
Bill Gates uses mandrake 8.x in the privacy of his home.
============================================================
this post is 100% free of insults to bsobel! LOL

 

[MisterBombastic]

Copying is copying, not stealing. If I stole Windows XP, then Microsoft would have lost something. If I copied Windows XP, Microsoft would lose nothing as I don't intend to buy it.

Films cost millions to produce, and have thousands of workers to pay. Cinema ticket prices are £5, and videos are £15. How can Microsoft justify charging in excess of ten times more for a piece of software that cost less to create, has less people to pay, and has superior distribution?

Not to mention Microsofts immoral and illegal business practises which spur budding Robin Hoods...

 

[bsobel]

Originally posted by: MisterBombastic
Copying is copying, not stealing. If I stole Windows XP, then Microsoft would have lost something. If I copied Windows XP, Microsoft would lose nothing as I don't intend to buy it.

Films cost millions to produce, and have thousands of workers to pay. Cinema ticket prices are £5, and videos are £15. How can Microsoft justify charging in excess of ten times more for a piece of software that cost less to create, has less people to pay, and has superior distribution?

Not to mention Microsofts immoral and illegal business practises which spur budding Robin Hoods...

Great, another idiot. Copying is stealing. Get over yourself.
Bill

 

[MisterBombastic]

Originally posted by: bsobel

Originally posted by: MisterBombastic
Copying is copying, not stealing. If I stole Windows XP, then Microsoft would have lost something. If I copied Windows XP, Microsoft would lose nothing as I don't intend to buy it.

Films cost millions to produce, and have thousands of workers to pay. Cinema ticket prices are £5, and videos are £15. How can Microsoft justify charging in excess of ten times more for a piece of software that cost less to create, has less people to pay, and has superior distribution?

Not to mention Microsofts immoral and illegal business practises which spur budding Robin Hoods...

Great, another idiot. Copying is stealing. Get over yourself.
Bill

How does that work out? How is copying without distribution for profit stealing? If one would not have purchased the product in the first place, how could making a copy of it for personal use be stealing? Since you seem to have an affinity to mouth off without backing up your idiotic statements with anything that approaches fact, you bsobel are the idiot.

I suppose you enjoy bending over and satisfying Microsofts demonic desires? Metaphorically speaking of course.

 

[Salvador]

I tell you what pisses me off about MS is this damn WPA thing. I'm not a software pirate. I don't mind paying for a copy of Windows for my computer, but it's totally rediculous if I want to change my hardware around or sell a computer and buy another one. Why should I have to buy another software license when I already have one? Sure, I could sell my copy of WinXP with my computer, but why should I have to take a hit on opened software and then turn around and buy new again?

As far as free trade goes, I think MS has more than crossed the line as far as being a monopoly. If MS hadn't pulled some of the crap that have pulled, maybe we'd have a cheaper and better alternative right now for an OS. I used to love Netscape, but it didn't get any better over time. They couldn't afford to after MS put the squeeze on them. Now I use IE, which makes me sad. I suspect that AOhell bought up Netscape because Netscape wasn't able to flurish on their own in a "free" market society because of MS monopolistic activities.

I just think it's sad that a company as big as MS offers so little. They have the worst tech support in the business and some of the most costly. I remember paying $35 one time for an issue I was having with Win98. This was before I got a little tech savvy. They didn't do crap to resolve the issue, but I still got charged the $35 plus whatever my toll call was. You'd think that they could do better than that. No.. They'd rather spend their money on R&D to keep some poor kid from installing his "paid for" version of XP on his second personal computer.

I wasn't a software pirate until XP. I won't buy XP because of WPA. If my warez version of XP gets swiped by MS, I'll just go back to my licensed copy of Win2k or Win98SE. It's just not worth the trouble.

Sal

 

[spyordie007]

Copying is copying, not stealing. If I stole Windows XP, then Microsoft would have lost something.

must.... resist...... sarcastic..... comment......

 

[Tedtalker1]

I just now ordered a copy of XP Pro for $39.95 just to be on the safe side.I feel better now.My free version works great though.

 

[bsobel]

How does that work out? How is copying without distribution for profit stealing? If one would not have purchased the product in the first place, how could making a copy of it for personal use be stealing? Since you seem to have an affinity to mouth off without backing up your idiotic statements with anything that approaches fact, you bsobel are the idiot.

Wow, when you get to high school, please take some introduction to the law class. It's quiet amazing you have no simple grasp of legal prinicipals. Copyright law does not require distribution for infringment to occur (of course, in your example, distribution did occur, otherwise where did you get your copy?). What part of this don't you understand? My backup for my 'idiotic statements' is U.S. law, what, btw, is yours?

Bill

 

[sodcha0s]

10 million copies * $100 = $100,000,000

Not that it matters, but 10,000,000 x 100 = 1,000,000,000 (billion), quite a difference.

 

[Salvador]

Now speaking of stealing.. Does anyone know the Microsoft story? Call me crazy, but didn't Bill Gates rip off a couple operating systems in his day? I'm not talking about stealing copies, but entire operating systems.

My gripe is now that MS has us over a barrel, they don't even bother to kiss us before they sc*w us. That's why I don't feel bad about having a warez copy of XP, even though I do own a full licensed copy. I just don't feel like dealing with the WPA, so I keep it in the box. I like to have it in case someone gets huffy about me not having a license for my devil's own copy.

Sal

 

[alphatarget1]

I'm not going to argue over the pirating of windoze anymore. But there is something i have to add.

In terms of hardware compatibility and software compatibility, linux comes nowhere near windoze which is why I'm still sticking with windows. Because windoze is still dominant to this date (and probably a lot longer) most software and hardware will be designed for windoze only. That's monopoly.

In any case, I see no reason to attack others verbally on a forum. Not that I'm bitching about it but it gets you nowhere in the discussion.

 

[gplanet]

My dad is always one to buy the full licensed versions of software even after I download the warezed copy. Even the very expensive retail Office 2000, since he is self-employed does not get it from work like many.

However, because of the product activation in Windows XP we have not bought it and never will.

 

[sodcha0s]

However, because of the product activation in Windows XP we have not bought it and never will.

Good luck. Chances are you will eventually be forced to break down and buy a copy, unless you switch platforms.