Microsoft checks channel

By Leon Engelbrecht for Microsoft
Johannesburg, 30 Jan 2008

Microsoft is concerned about piracy in its channel. SMS&P Partner executive Mark Reynolds says 200 000 PCs and notebooks with pirated software are now sold in SA annually.

About 96% of Microsoft's business in SA goes through a network of around 6 500 resellers.

Reynolds, a former policeman, says: "Microsoft is putting its foot down" and, under his auspices, it will shortly place "name and shame" adverts, publishing the names of companies Microsoft has acted against.

Companies that will have their names displayed under the headline "Pirates hit and sunk!" include Bitel Computers, i-Web, Dautech Computers, Richards Bay Computers and A&M Hyperworld.

Reynolds says piracy is costing Microsoft money and taking legitimate business out of the channel and food from others' tables. "You know my background. I see them as any other criminal; they're stealing, they're just doing it in a different way."

He adds that the price of legitimate software is often held up as a reason to buy pirated goods. However, he says Windows Vista Basic can sell for as little as R200, making that a feeble excuse.