$1 Amnesty For Pirated Software

[Spinner]

Microsoft has reached a deal with Indonesia over the tens of thousands of pirated versions of Windows programs used in government departments.

"Microsoft is being realistic," Indonesia's information minister, Sofyan Djalil, was quoted as saying in the Jakarta Post newspaper.

"They can't force developing countries like us to solely use legal software since we can't afford it. They want us to gradually reduce our use of it."
Source: BBC (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4076982.stm)

[Rewired]

From what I can understand, users of pirated software pay $1 and are granted amnesty affectively validating their version of Windows. Are the individual consumers paying or the Indonesian government?

[redchief]

hmmm winders fer a buck, sounds good, kinda lik employee pricing

[Thrax]

"They can't force developing countries like us to solely use legal software since we can't afford it."

This quote annoys me greatly.

"We're too ****ing poor to be legitimate, so we'll pirate everything. **** you, world."

[pseudonym]

I agree Thrax, it seems a bit off.

Gee, don't you think you could have talked to Microsoft and then NEGOTIATED a price before you pirated everything? Theres a thought.

[Jengo]

They should have just used linux. Then microsoft would have given them windows for free.

[redchief]

and we wonder why Tex support jobs are going off shore. $1 for MS software shore seems to help

[deepsea]

There's the ultimate irony. Off shore programmers, working on a pirated version of Windows, developing the next version of Windows.