Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Piracy Built This Country

In a celebration opening a new Microsoft global technical center in Bucharest, Romania, President Traian Basescu said in a speech with the software giant's chairman, Bill Gates, present:
Piracy helped the young generation discover computers. It set off the development of the IT industry in Romania. It helped Romanians improve their creative capacity in the IT industry, which has become famous around the world ... Ten years ago, it was an investment in Romania's friendship with Microsoft and with Bill Gates.
About 70% of software in Romania is pirated and salesmen still sell pirated CDs and DVDs of software at office buildings. Some argue that this behavior in nations with low incomes actually has benefits for large vendors because there are no sales losses if the people would not have been able to purchase the software, there is pressure for individuals to "go legit" when entering the workforce, and the vendor gains increased mindshare.

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