Articles on law China Related Articles Microsoft Tests Chinese Law On Piracy
| Microsoft Tests Chinese Law On Piracy |
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| Written by Tina Wang | |||
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Microsoft's latest global anti-piracy effort has provoked a popular outcry and a legal challenge in China. The main issue: Microsoft's bundling of anti-piracy programs with system updates, a practice that is also under challenge in the United States. Chinese regulatory and industry reactions underscore the strength of the country's resistance to the tech giant's actions. A downloadable update from Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT) for Windows XP Professional users in China distributed last week resets desktop backgrounds to black every hour for those computers running pirated Microsoft software. It also posts a persistent desktop alert in the lower right corner warning users they are running bootleg software. The program prompted a Beijing lawyer, Dong Zhengwei, to file a privacy complaint this week with the State Public Security Bureau and an anti-monopoly complaint with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. Dong charged that Microsoft's action violates user privacy, by intruding on users' computers without their permission. He also claims that Microsoft is abusing its dominant position in violation of the country's anti-monopoly law, passed in August. Microsoft, however, stressed the importance of protecting intellectual property and said its update complies with Chinese regulations. Dong's privacy and anti-monopoly claims have no legal basis, said Steven Dickinson, a China-based lawyer for Harris Moure, because Chinese law does not uphold the concept of "user privacy," and the anti-monopoly law exempts legal monopoly arising from intellectual property protection. But scrutiny centered on how Microsoft folded the anti-piracy program into an automatic update that was sent to users who opt to receive updates through Windows or Microsoft Update. Microsoft can "get into trouble for bundling," Dickinson said. Dong told the English-language China Daily that "Microsoft uses its monopoly to bundle its updates with the validation programs." This bundling issue is also the subject of a pending U.S. lawsuit, brought in 2006 when Microsoft packaged a similar anti-piracy program with a security update for U.S. users. A public relations officer for Microsoft stressed Wednesday that users can reject an automatic update before it is installed on their computers. Another basis for Dong's claim may be the impact of Microsoft's update on product performance. Dong has charged that the anti-piracy program disrupts the normal operation of users' computers. There is a precedent for "cases against software companies whose anti-piracy measures damage computers. These claims go to product liability type issues," Dickinson said. The vice director of China's National Copyright Administration, Yan Xiaohong, told state news agency Xinhua that the appropriateness of Microsoft's "blackout method" is "open to question." The China Software Industry Association, of which Microsoft China is a member, criticized Microsoft's action to the People's Daily. A 2007 joint study by the Business Software Alliance and International Data Corporation estimates the software piracy rate to be in excess of 80% in China, leading to losses of $6.7 billion.
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