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"It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not."

"As long as they are going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They'll get sort of addicted, and then we'll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade."

- Bill Gates

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(CC-BY TechFlash Todd)

In a recent post at Pcmag titled "CSI Redmond: How Microsoft Tracks Down Pirates", the author tells a long, suspenseful and obviously MS-sympathetic tale about Microsoft's epic battles against "criminals and pirates". He starts his epic story with the following:

Each new iteration of Microsoft software also marks a new chapter in the ongoing cat-and-mouse game between software counterfeiters and Microsoft's own enforcement team.

Like paper currency, Microsoft employs a variety of techniques to assure customers that the software discs they're buying are valid. And rings of cybercriminals, in turn, make every attempt to defeat those safeguards.

And then he went on to describe the different methods used by "pirates" to counterfeit Microsoft's software, as well as posting images showing the different tools used in the process. Next, he proceeds to tell the epic tales about Microsoft's heroic combat against counterfeiters, and also enumerating the different methods MS uses in that process.

However, the real story about Microsoft's strategy regarding piracy and counterfeiting could never be further from the stories told by the most famous news websites, or even newspapers and news channels or radio stations. The real story, as Bill Gate's quote -mentioned above- suggests, is about creating a generation of computer users who know nothing about their machines other than what MS chooses to show them. A generation whom the only definition they know of the term "Operating System" is "Windows", all they know about installing a new piece of software is "Next, Next, Next, I Agree, Finish".

But then the grief doesn't end here, because the problem will seem even worse if you ponder the fact that most people, around the world, who use computers can barely afford to pay their monthly bills, and that all these people are using pirated software because:

1. That's the only software they've ever known. And:
2. They cannot afford to pay for the annual licensing fee of a genuine copy.

These people have been mass-hypnotized, they've been indoctrinated into believing that whatever MS gives them is right, and that MS software is the only software on Earth that actually works. Now, take under consideration that MS is a for-profit organization after all (Actually, MS is a for-nothing-but-profit organization, but ya know), and that sooner or later, MS will start collecting money in all ways possible. At that point, the poor people who became "addicted" to Microsoft's software are at crossroads. Either:

1. Their financial issues have been solved by then and now they are ready to pay MS for the genuine licensed copy of their software. (Which is very unlikely). OR:
2. That their financial problems are still there, which means, they can either continue to take the risks of using pirated copies of MS's software, or stop using a computer altogether.

Conclusion:
What most mass media institutions and huge famous news website are trying to market as Microsoft's justified fight against pirated software is a big hoax. Microsoft preys upon addiction and complete ignorance, and piracy has always been Microsoft's biggest scam from the very beginning.

The solution:
The best solution for this problem is to turn the table against Microsoft's scam. How? By dumping Microsoft altogether and embracing Free Software. This way:

• There will be no piracy anymore, since Free Software saves our human dignity, because we no longer have to steal anything anymore.
• Microsoft will continue to bleed to death, not from piracy, but from the grand awakening of the people, which is Microsoft's worst nightmare.