Microsoft's Chinese-style fight against piracy

"Microsoft just squeezed 60,000 yuan from our company yesterday." On July 31, an Internet entrepreneur broke the news to 21st Century Business Herald.

Not long ago, Microsoft and the local industrial and commercial bureau raided the company to crack down on piracy. The company was closed down, and then each computer was checked. The company's employees were assigned to cooperate with the investigation. Many employees were shocked and thought the company was in big trouble. But the entrepreneur felt that Microsoft's piracy determination was problematic: all the company's computers were running genuine software, and some laptops were for public and private use, and they were installed with the home version instead of the enterprise version. According to Microsoft's determination, this was piracy. At the same time, when purchasing the enterprise version, it must be purchased from the agent designated by Microsoft.

The entrepreneur said that the agent who was in charge of signing contracts with them said that they were following Microsoft's steps to fight against piracy, and that they could sign contracts with six or seven companies every week. The agent revealed to the entrepreneur that whenever Microsoft upgraded its products, it would crack down on piracy to promote sales of the new version of software.

The person from the company asked Microsoft: "How did you find our company?" Microsoft replied: "Did your company do any promotion recently?"

Starting to advertise means that the company has started to make money, or at least raised money, and such companies will enter Microsoft's field of vision: it is useless for companies without money to advertise, and they cannot get money. Only companies with money can make money. This is similar to the example of Shanda: in 2002, relying on its online game business, Shanda Network made millions a day and became a little famous in Shanghai. Microsoft came to the door and asked Shanda Network to compensate for infringement.

Shanda founder Chen Tianqiao was very strong. He was not satisfied with Microsoft's determination of infringement and went to Beijing to find a reporter to find a solution. The reporter did not come up with a solution, but Chen Tianqiao himself came up with a solution: he persuaded Tang Jun, then president of Microsoft China, to join Shanda. In fact, before Tang Jun joined, the Shanda piracy incident had been resolved. More than a year later, Shanda went public in the United States, Chen Tianqiao became China's richest man, and Tang Jun also earned 2.5 million shares.

The above entrepreneur was not as strong as Chen Tianqiao and eventually paid 60,000 yuan in compensation to Microsoft. He told 21st Century Business Herald: "As long as you pay the money, whether you use it or not is another matter. For example, if you buy Windows 8 but replace it with an expired XP, it's fine." He said Microsoft was forcing him to buy and sell.

The above-mentioned entrepreneurs believe that Microsoft’s suspected monopoly and the investigation of its four offices by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce are not about bundling sales as rumored, but about using its monopoly position in the market to force purchases and sales. Many companies have reported Microsoft’s behavior.

Fighting Piracy the Chinese Way

The Internet startup company eventually paid 60,000 yuan, which is not a large sum. Earlier this year, Shanghai Bo Ke Software Company also encountered a surprise crackdown on piracy led by Microsoft, and the amount of compensation was more than 6 million yuan.

Materials obtained by 21st Century Business Herald show that Microsoft believes that Shanghai Boco has infringed on four types of its software: one is the Windows series operating system software; two is the Microsoft Sever series software, including Microsoft SQL Server (Microsoft database software) and Microsoft Windows Server software; three is the Microsoft Visual Studio development tool series software; and four is the Microsoft Office series software.

Microsoft demanded approximately RMB 710,000 in compensation for the Windows series operating system software; approximately RMB 4.05 million in compensation for the Microsoft sever series software; approximately RMB 480,000 in compensation for Microsoft development tools; and approximately RMB 1.4 million in compensation for Microsoft Office software.

The total compensation for the four items is about 6.64 million yuan. In addition, Microsoft also asked for an apology outside the center margin of the People's Daily.

A person in charge of Boco said in an interview with a reporter from 21st Century Business Herald: The company has more than 450 computers in total, 250 of which are installed with Linux operating system, and about 200 of them are purchased from OEM manufacturers such as Lenovo, with built-in Windows system, and some are brought to the company by employees. According to Microsoft's determination, these products can only be used privately, not in the company, and using them is considered pirated.

All Microsoft sever software is genuine software, but according to Microsoft regulations, these software have a limited number of users. Brocade's number of users did not exceed the limit, but some customers used Brocade's equipment for testing. Microsoft determined that these uses exceeded the number of users. The above-mentioned person in charge was particularly confused. Brocade's customers are all from industries such as banks and manufacturing. Using Microsoft's software for testing is actually helping Microsoft promote its products. Why did Microsoft still determine that the company was a pirated product?

Regarding Microsoft Visual Studio development tools, there are 12 machines pre-installed, 10 of which are paid for and 2 are not, but none of the above systems are activated. Brocade has been a partner of Microsoft for 12 years, and each company will pay a certain amount of development tool fees regularly, even if they don't use them, so there is a phenomenon of pre-installed but not activated.

The situation with Office is similar to that with Windows, and the dispute arises from the issue of public and private use.

Microsoft-style brute force

Facing Microsoft's violent behavior, Chen Tianqiao was not the first person to resist. The first person to resist Microsoft was He Luming of Asia Capital.

15 years ago, He Lumin, president of Yadu Technology Group, suddenly received a panicked report from his subordinates: We were sued by Microsoft. A subpoena from the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court informed that Beijing Yadu Technology Group had infringed computer software copyrights, and the infringing products included MS-Dos, MS-Windows 95, MS-Office95, MS-Office97 (Word6.0, Access97) and other software.

Microsoft demanded that Yadu Technology pay 2.2 million yuan in compensation (including attorney fees and litigation costs). The indictment was also accompanied by testimonies signed by then-U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and then-Washington State Secretary Charles Gillard.

He Lumin decided to file a counterclaim. The reasons He Lumin raised against Microsoft's lawsuit 15 years ago were very similar to those of Brocade 15 years later: Yadu's software was a completely legal and genuine product, and the so-called pirated software installed on the company's PCs was purely the personal behavior of some employees.

The outcome of the lawsuit was beyond Microsoft's expectations, and Microsoft lost the case. Influenced by this incident, Microsoft China General Manager Wu Shihong resigned in August of that year, Microsoft China President Du Jiabin resigned, and He Lumin became a national hero who opposed Microsoft's patent hegemony.

The background of this incident is that on May 8, 1999, NATO brazenly bombed the Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia, which led to rising national sentiment in China. The three pillars of American hegemony are American military hegemony, economic hegemony, and cultural hegemony (including power hegemony).

Four years later, when Chen Tianqiao was about to learn from He Lumin, a senior media figure advised Chen Tianqiao: the time is different, China is at a critical moment of joining the WTO, and you have to choose a smarter approach than He Lumin. Chen Tianqiao's approach is the famous "Chen Tang pairing" in the IT industry.

Regarding Microsoft's approach to fighting piracy, Brocade CEO Shen Guokang said: "It's like I bought a private car, but I can only drive it at home. If I drive it to work, the car manufacturer can sue me for infringement, and the court will not only accept the case, but also support it." He believes that Microsoft is asking for too much, even if it repurchases all the above software, it will not cost 6.64 million yuan. The reason is that Microsoft has been fighting piracy too smoothly in the past ten years with the support of all parties.

According to Shen Guokang, the case is still under investigation and Microsoft has not yet provided strong evidence to support the compensation amount of 6.64 million yuan.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.