Wednesday, September 3, 2008 — IP ON THE NET, GLOBAL IP STRATEGY

Software piracy - a strategic business approach

by Duncan Bucknell

Here's a story from our Intellectual Capital Manager, Marie Louise about trying to get a copy of Microsoft Access, from Microsoft...

I went to the Access home page on the Microsoft website.  When I clicked on ‘buy now’ was taken to a page referring only to Office suites and stockists.  Called a local retailer and was told that they don’t think Access is sold as a stand-alone product anymore.  I then called the local Microsoft number to question if this is correct.  The first person I spoke to said he was unsure so directed my call to another person.  The second fellow told me he ‘thought’ it was still sold as a stand-alone product.  When I asked for stockists he stressed that he doesn’t have a list of stockists but personally he would recommend Harris Technology.  Harris Technology were very helpful so my search ended there.

So, the question is how many people would have taken up the offer of a free pirated copy before getting to the end of that saga?

Maybe another way to cut down on software (and content) piracy is to simply make it much easier for your customers to access the real thing?

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