During the Global Anti-Counterfeiting Awards in Paris, Microsoft earned a commendation by the Global Anti-Counterfeiting Group (GACG) for the company’s efforts to build awareness and protect consumers from software piracy.
During the award ceremony, the Director General of the National Institute for Industrial Property had nothing but positive things to say for Microsoft. “I want to highlight Microsoft’s tremendous effort to raise consumer awareness about the risk of counterfeits. As far as France is concerned, we had several occasions to witness the commitment of the team to push forward IP value and culture.”
This is what Microsoft had to say about the concern for piracy:
We have long recognized that non-genuine software increases the risks of malware infection and identity theft, hurts job creation, funds violent criminal gangs and hampers economic growth. Consumers around the world understand these risks as well, and are increasingly calling on industry and their local governments to take a stronger stand against software piracy.
We are well aware that there is still much work to be done by everyone, including industry groups, governments and enforcement agencies. According to Business Software Alliance’s 2010 Global Software Piracy Study, the commercial value of software piracy grew 14 percent globally last year to a record total of US$58.8 billion, so we know the stakes are huge.
The need to reduce software piracy around the world is reaching a critical point. Our goal is to protect the intellectual property rights of companies, and help level the playing field for legitimate businesses around the world that play by the rules. To accomplish this, we support new and balanced approaches, such as the one recently taken in Washington State where a new law was passed which addresses the unfair competition that results when technology is stolen and assigns reasonable responsibility to legitimate businesses in a position to act. IT theft and piracy undermines innovation and imperils the global and local economies, and Microsoft will remain on the front line of this issue.
Microsoft continues to stand against piracy by being on the front line. Just recently, during the opening of Microsoft’s new Microsoft Asia-Pacific R&D Group HQ in Beijing, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer stated that the revenue made in China was only 5% compared to what Microsoft makes in the United States. Ballmer further explains by saying that piracy was the reason why the revenue from China was so little and that the company would be doing its best to help combat piracy.