That Don't Impress Me Much

When Microsoft India had rolled out its anti-piracy drive earlier this year,
it first made the channel sit up and take notice. Then the vendor started
targeting partners, by sending decoy customers who asked for pirated software to
be loaded onto their machines and then penalizing the partner if he agreed to do
so.

This obviously did not go down well with the partner community and before
long some of the local associations decided to make their displeasure obvious.
The South Gujarat IT Association (SITA), for one, observed a day-long bandh in
protest. Other associations too voiced their dissatisfaction.

Microsoft then decided to work with various channel associations for taking
its anti-piracy drive forward. This was a good move. The vendor wanted to
educate the channel about the fallacies of piracy and also inform them about the
penalty for indulging in it.

Which is fair enough. I don't agree with piracy, be it with software, music,
movies, books, anything. If someone has invested time, money and effort in
coming out with a product, the customer should acknowledge that creator's
efforts and pay for the products.

But then again, the creator ought to know how much to charge for the product
too. If it is exorbitantly priced, then there is no doubt, that people will
either abstain from purchasing it, or will pirate it.

Coming back to Microsoft's efforts of drawing associations to its fold for
the anti-piracy drive, the intent was good. It is too bad that the action that
followed did not match the intent.

In one of the articles in this issue of DQ Channels you will read that the
channel associations are divided about the success of the anti-piracy drive.
Most associations were vocal with their support to the vendor for this
initiative. But most felt that it got diluted because Microsoft did not follow
it up thoroughly and consistently.

This was because the vendor did not carry channel awareness programs about
piracy on a regular basis. In most cases it had a couple of meetings with the
association members and then the drive kind of fizzled out.

In some other cases, the Microsoft people who were locally involved in the
anti-piracy drive would keep changing. As a result, the drive could not be
carried out smoothly and effectively. The vendor also promised to work with some
other associations for the same initiative, but never came through.

This is unfortunate. The anti-piracy drive had painted Microsoft as a big bad
wolf and it could have worked closely with the associations to clear this image
and also get the partners onto its side of the piracy drive. The half-hearted
attempts by the software giant have just left the channel with an impression
that this drive was nothing but some posturing from Microsoft.

Will it then be right to blame the channel for indulging in piracy,
especially when their customers insist on it, and even more so if the vendor is
not too keen on educating them about the pitfalls? Not to mention, revise the
pricing of the products, so that the message is passed on loud and clear to the
end customers, that there is now no need to buy pirated software.

It would be nice if Microsoft takes notice of this general sentiment
currently prevailing amongst the channel and either takes up the drive seriously
or simply drops it entirely.

vinita bhatia

vinitavs@cybermedia.co.in