Software major
href="https://www.dqweek.com/microsoft-india-chairman-quits">Microsoft
has left no stone unturned when it came to countering counterfeit
software products, and now the company is actively engaging resellers
to counter piracy through extensive educational initiatives. The
software giant is currently offering education and awareness programs
to partners and customers through its 'Geo Expansion' drive in more
than 75 cities across the country.
As a part of its ongoing
initiative, Microsoft has conducted DTPP (Dealer Testing Purchase
Program) in Punjab to check, whether the resellers or dealers have
installed pirated software. The company sent notices to close to 15
partners in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Amritsar, Bathinda and Chandigarh
recently, asking them to pay hefty fine and sign an agreement in
which they have to adhere that they will not be involved in further
activities of installing pirated software.
Preetinder Singh who owns
an HCL outlet, Pearl Compute
in
Ludhiana said that, they have spoken to Microsoft and
showed bills, and most of their purchases included OEM packs. Sandeep
Gupta of Amritsar-based My Infotech said that, consumers are getting
software over the Internet, and Microsoft should actively engage in
educational initiatives and propagate legal benefits of genuine
software. "They (MS) said that someone from within the company
would come, but nothing happened as of yet. We are helpless. There is
no further communication from Microsoft," told Gup
The
partners in Punjab agreed to help Microsoft in fighting software
piracy.
Speaking to The DQ
Week, Anil Varghese, director-original software initiative,
Microsoft India said that, when it comes to dealing with defaulting
partners or resellers, their approach is to get into a dialogue with
them and educate them on the pitfalls and risks of piracy. "Education
and engagement remains our first priority and we undertake various
activities in this regard. The route of enforcement is always open to
us as IP owners, but we exercise that option only when all our
efforts to exchange a dialogue and engagement around support to
genuine software fails, and to provide a level playing field to
honest resellers who are making all efforts to do only genuine
business," he said.
Microsoft said that, their
objective behind enforcement is to make the reseller community
realize the legal risks associated with indulging in software piracy
and why is it beneficial for them to go only for genuine. "The
partner and reseller community plays an extremely important role in
ensuring the sale of original software, as they are a link between
software vendors and end-consumers and have a significant role in
keeping a continuous check to prevent hard-disk loading of pirated MS
software across the country," Varghese said.
Microsoft has also
undertaken various long-term, sustained initiatives to create
awareness among the reseller community through incentive programs,
events and monthly newsletters. Varghese informed that, they are
working with various channel associations against the menace of
piracy, and are dedicated to create a clean, safe and healthy
channel-reseller ecosystem.