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 Technology News | February 2007 
Pirated Vista Dirt Cheap on Latin American Streets
 Reuters
| | Illegal copies of the new Windows Vista Ultimate operating system can be bought for about $US6 off the street in Sao Paulo. Official copies of Vista, are on sale in Brazilian stores for about $380. (Reuters) |
Days after a beaming Bill Gates unveiled his much-vaunted Windows Vista software at a retail price of $US400 for the premium version, Latin American street vendors are hawking pirate copies for under $US10.
At a sidewalk stall in Mexico City's grimy historic centre, vendor Jose Luis offloaded cut-price copies of the software that cost Microsoft Corp $US6 billion to bring to market.
"Man, whatever it is, we get it damn quick here," he said, taking two bootleg DVDs at 100 pesos each out of a fake Puma backpack and slipping them into a plastic bag.
The world's biggest software maker, Microsoft Corp. rolled out Vista in 70 countries last week, hailing it as a revolutionary digital media tool and its most important software upgrade since the ubiquitous Windows 95.
"They always say it can't be copied, but there you go," said Jose Luis, whose stall is blocks away from where a publicity team for Windows last month formed the Vista logo with their bodies in a publicity stunt.
In Latin America's other mega city, Sao Paulo, illegal sellers crammed the sidewalk of the Rua Santa Efigenia, the one-stop shop for all things computer, hawking Vista's "Ultimate" edition in Portuguese for just 15 reais.
The official version sells in Brazil for 989 reais.
"No one can afford what they're charging," said Carlos, whose makeshift stand also offered Office 2007, antivirus software from Symantec Corp. and games such as Fifa 07.
A group of multinational companies last week put Brazil in fourth place among the worst countries for business piracy – behind China, Russia and India.
About 50 per cent of all compact discs sold in Brazil are pirated, as are around 30 per cent of DVDs, fuelling a counterfeit business worth around $30 billion a year, according to the union that represents federal tax agents.
The Business Software Alliance, which groups companies like Apple, Adobe Systems, Microsoft and Symantec, estimates some 65 per cent of software programmes sold in Mexico are illegal copies.
The level of piracy in Mexico robs the industry of $US525 million annually, said the alliance's Mexico director, Kiyoshi Tsuru.
While Latin American consumers may appear to be getting a bargain by buying illegal products, many features might not work without a genuine copy, computer experts say.
"The other day, someone said to me: 'It's like leaving your son in the care of a prostitute.' Likewise I couldn't entrust my machine to a criminal," Tsuru said.
Police in many Latin American cities are struggling to fight violent crime and mostly turn a blind eye to what they see as minor offenses like film, music and software pirating. Often on low pay, police are susceptible to bribes.
The Mexican attorney general's office says it busted thousands of piracy operations in 2006 and seized millions of counterfeit items. But it is fighting a losing battle.
"We've seized hundreds of (CD and DVD) burners but the industry generates enough cash to carry on," a spokesman said. |
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