Jamshedpur partner cries foul

Microsoft's anti-piracy drive in the East upcountry markets has got one
channel partner in Jamshedpur questioning the company's sales strategy in
eradicating piracy from the region. Sudhir Kumar of Infogate Exporters, a
Microsoft Certified Professional since 1998 alleged that despite the fact that
he is using original Microsoft software in his office, he has been receiving
repeated threat calls from Microsoft officials trying to sell him Microsoft
products. The official has also been warning him that if he did not comply, he
would have to face dire consequences.

Kumar said, “On December 10, I got a call from a Microsoft official who said
he was an Accounts Officer with Microsoft India. He said that we are using 25
computers in our office premises and they were running on pirated software. He
also warned me that I need to buy original licenses, or face legal action.”
Sometime later, Kumar also received an e-mail from the official pursuing him to
buy the authentic licenses.

Claiming that his company has original Microsoft licenses, Kumar added, “I do
not have 25 computers on my premises and am using original software. I asked the
official to come to my office and audit the situation. Thereafter, he got angry
and said that other company officials from Oracle, Tally and others will also
follow suite if the Microsoft audit team comes.”

Refuting the allegations and stating that Microsoft is not conducting any
anti-piracy drive in Jharkhand, Vipul Sant, Director-Original Software
Initiative, Microsoft India said, “It has always been Microsoft's endeavor to
promote use of genuine software amongst the user base at large and the reseller
community plays an extremely important role in this endeavor. At Microsoft, we
have undertaken various long-term, sustained initiatives to create awareness
among the reseller community through incentive programs, events, monthly
newsletters and others.”

“Additionally, we are determined to protect the customer, reseller and
partner ecosystem from the threats and losses associated with piracy, and to
prevent counterfeiters from taking advantage of innocent victims and gaining an
unfair advantage over our honest partners,” he further stressed.

Discussing the process involved in Microsoft's anti-piracy campaign, a
company official from Jharkhand stated, “We have an anti-piracy tool to detect
the use of unauthorized software and our systems are technically sound in every
sense. When we are sure a particular consumer is using counterfeit software, we
try to educate him about the downfalls of using pirated software and ask him to
purchase an original license. In some cases, if the customer refuses to replace
pirated software with original Microsoft license even after repeated requests,
we hand over the case to SAM department and even then it is escalated to higher
department.”

However, not convinced with Microsoft's statement, Kumar questioned why he
was receiving threat calls from the company. Kumar opined that the threat calls
were a means to frighten customers and increase software sales. He has also
stated that because of these threat calls, a lot of people in industrial area in
Jamshedpur have postponed their plans to buy computers, preferring instead to
outsource their work.