AfterDawn: News

Romanian President says piracy helped his country

During Bill Gates' tour to promote the recently launched Windows Vista operating system, Romanian President Traian Basescu reportedly told Gates about how piracy helped his country. Appearing at the opening of a Microsoft global technology center in Bucharest, he said, "Piracy helped the young generation discover computers. It set off the development of the IT industry in Romania."

"Piracy helped Romanians improve their creative capacity in the IT industry, which has become famous around the world... ten years ago, it was an investment in Romania's friendship with Microsoft and with Bill Gates," he added. There is no reported response from Bill Gates over the comments.



Microsoft aggressively pursues piracy and discourages it on a global scale, regardless of location. Of all the software in Romania, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) claims that 72% is actually pirated, estimating it costs companies like Microsoft $111 million in revenue each year.

Source:
The Register

Written by: James Delahunty @ 1 Feb 2007 17:28

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• 28 comments

• buck66m

  The Romanian Presedent shound like he was born and bred in America...what a tool!

  1.2.2007 17:43 #1

• Rikoshay

  To put it bluntly, it was for the better good, and I think not commenting showed some resolve on Bill Gates' part.
  
  Also, what exactly is it that you're so upset about buck66m? I've already seen you talk slanderously about the US twice in other news articles. This isn't the place to be pointing fingers. If you want to talk smack, go start a "I hate the US Dynasty" thread in Safety Valve, or head over to a political forum. I'm sure you've got lots of concrete, intelligent, fact filled and awe-inspiring information as to why you hate the US so much. You also need to get that strait, it's obviously the US you hate, because saying America could mean either Canada or South America as well.

  2.2.2007 01:05 #2

• geeoh

  </quote>The Romanian Presedent shound like he was born and bred in America...what a tool! </quote>
  
  You european faggot! Pretty tough words for someone who's hiding behind an alias and IP address. Ameria is way better than Europe any day. You Europeans are fucked up! So fuck off you turd! I'm getting sick of you euro trash turds!

  2.2.2007 02:49 #3

• kidkhaos1

  lol calm down ladies, time to put your weiners away, tis only an online forum :D.
  
  
  Tbh i can't what was so bad about the romanian president's comments :/.

  2.2.2007 05:57 #4

• solarf

  man its getting a little rowdy in here.. Anyway what he said was not that bad just the truth piracy helped his country out.

  2.2.2007 06:39 #5

• idef

  If I remember well the firsts windows versions were also largely pirated and nobody complained about it, especialy Bill Gates because that's how he got his new product to be known and enter family homes, not just businesses.
  So again here, he is not complaning because it serves him well. Until everyone is hooked on his product, then starts complaning about piracy.
  
  PS geeoh : I am European although I live in America, I do not critize the US citizen, so please do not generalise your critics to all Europeans. Some people might have build up criticism or hatred whatever the reason (justified or not), but so far you are only helping in building it more instead of calming it down.

  2.2.2007 07:24 #6

• Mr-Movies

  In away I’m surprised that the Romanian President said that but then again I’m not. Gates can’t really do anything about what he said, no jurisdiction, and possibly he can use this to barter a deal for future software. So it might have been a smart statement for him to make in which Gate’s is smart not to reply too.
  
  Most of the world doesn’t like the US and it’s for multiple reasons, Power, Media (NEWS), freedoms, and so on. Unfortunately places like Germany take our aid and military only to criticize us and teach their children to dislike us. We are dumb to support these situations and it only seams to get worst. This is a big downfall of our current president and our foreign affairs group across the world. There never are absolutes, wait a minute that’s an absolute, whenever anyone speaks but what the point might be is most people in those cases feel that way. I have personal friends all over the world but that doesn’t take away from the fact that most of the people in their country hate the US.
  

  2.2.2007 09:17 #7

• xhardc0re

  Calm down on the Euro-bashing. Be kind to your elders...they are like 1,492+ yrs older than us ;)
  
  Does anyone find it ironic that most SW costs so much the average Romanian/Chinese person could never even afford a computer at home? Or the OS to run it? M$osft is making the perfect case for opensource. Unfortunately, once most ppl learn Linux they would quickly turn to 'where the money is' and start learning M$oft and non-opensource SW. Opensource has great potential if gov & education get involved in using it. The cost savings in the first year would justify the training of workers to learn it. So opensource SW has a chance to succeed and put Gatez & Co. out of biz someday.

  2.2.2007 09:18 #8

• mark5hs

  microsoft seems to be encouraging people to pirate or use linux with this complete crap "Vista Starter edition" theyre releasing in poor countries

  2.2.2007 10:07 #9

• mark5hs

  microsoft seems to be encouraging people to pirate or use linux with this complete crap "Vista Starter edition" theyre releasing in poor countries

  2.2.2007 10:07 #10

• mark5hs

  microsoft seems to be encouraging people to pirate or use linux with this complete crap "Vista Starter edition" theyre releasing in poor countries

  2.2.2007 10:07 #11

• alecul

  The Romanian President's comments are all true and I say that because I grew up in Romania in which I faced that reality..People were just too poor to afford buying Mr. Gates's software and so the piracy was the only option. Mr. Gates does not comment on these comments because he knows very well that there were advantages out of that, like: people in that "piracy" generation which were very effective and innovational -- now working and developing for Microsoft..
  
  In regards to the Europian- American comments ---kids grow up!!! There is a lot of respect for eachother among both sides - and trust me I know that because half of my life lived in Europe and my second half in Nort America.

  2.2.2007 10:55 #12

• idef

  If I may add to the USA/rest of the world debate, in most cases people do not hate the USA country nor its citizen nor anyone hates another country or citizen. What is hated is rather the gouvernment aggressive politics. That's what we see after all : the outer appearance of a country's gouvernement and we imagine all their citizen are the same.
  
  Medias have a huge responsability especialy when being over 'patriotic' and giving partial ideas. In most cases they justify their gouvernement decisions over the other countries decisions. Our duty is to use the means we have (web mainly) to find out what is said in other countries so we may have both points of views and built ourselves a true idea of what is happening, not a partial idea. Knowledge will makes us free. In most cases both countries have good points, they just don't agree because they each see to their needs first.
  
  All around the world there are very good citizen, and most people respect other countries' citizen even if they don't agree with them. Of course there will always be the jalous ones, the proud ones, the one that covet power and the one that still think they have all power/knowledge/technology/etc... over the world. Can we hate them because they have limited capacities ? No, we can but only try to open their eyes a little wider.
  
  For my part I try to learn the good things from every country, because there is just no perfect country.
  
  For my personnal education I am still woundering in what Germany is taking aid from the USA that is not a common exchange.
  Besides, the fact of recieving critisim is not a mark of unthankfullness, and helping does not prevent one from recieving critics.
  Critics can be constructives (I'm not saying they are but can be). Sometimes one needs have enought humility to accept criticism. And I recognize that I need more acceptance of others criticism.
  
  

  2.2.2007 11:16 #13

• georgeluv

  pretty sad when the leader of a country like romainia can speak the truth but in america our representatives have exactly the opposite of the publicsinterest in mind.

  2.2.2007 11:23 #14

• Mr-Movies

  Sorry idef but your totally wrong I've traveled the world and spent years in other countries. In the Philippians I was screamed at for being American and even beat badly needing stitches for that reason and ONLY that reason. So pardon me if I disagree with you. It is also true that I came across a lot of people that liked the US and envied our country but there was more that did not. I use to tell strangers I was Canadian just to avoid problems.

  2.2.2007 11:59 #15

• idef

  I also travelled around the world in many coutnries, not the philipines thou. The biggest reproch was toward the USA gouvernment aggressivity to dominate the world in its many facets.
  I am not sure it is envy they might have, or not only...just to much oppression, look at how many countries economics are going down just because one country decides how the world should be.
  

  2.2.2007 12:05 #16

• zubikhan

  Piracy = bliss : P

  2.2.2007 18:09 #17

• Blackjax

  OK time to lighten it up a bit.........
  
  I wonder if Gates would have preferred another pie in the face as opposed to this? 'having uncontrollable giggles right now' Any comments?

  2.2.2007 18:29 #18

• Dela

  The main annouyances in this news comments thread have been suspended already so I consider their offenses to be wiped when they return, but id just like to remind anyone else who wants to be an ass, we can and will report repeat offenders to their ISPs for abuse of service. I'm getting tired of the stupidity, there are so many people here who don't want to read your crap every time they want to give their view on news so do us all a favor and go away.

  2.2.2007 19:31 #19

• borhan9

  At least one of the worlds countries leaders has the brains and guts to stand up for his peoples rights. Well done.
  
  See piracy in the long run helps...

  2.2.2007 21:15 #20

• xhardc0re

  let's face the facts here. Many Chinese workers earn less than $20/day (I don't know if that's U.S. equivalent or their own currency). So if they aren't getting paid to afford to LIVE, HTF are they going to afford a $100 operating system? Or the Vista ULTIMATE Mega Super Duper We Protect You Against Nasty Spywares Edition for just under $379.99
  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HCTYTE

  3.2.2007 13:51 #21

• barontc56

  Both of these men are very smart and the prez told the truth and Gates handled it well.
  Piracy stimulates BOTH hardware and software sales. I have been the leader of two clubs that operated for the good of the members. We had plenty of shady software. That brought people into us that bought computers and new software. The europeans get to criticize us because they are free and they are free because of the blood of our fathers. The USA leads the world because of our freedoms.

  4.2.2007 10:44 #22

• raceman94

  4.2.2007 10:48 #23

• naviscan

  We could start by learning English grammar...
  Half of the above are Bad English! LOL
  Hate won't get you anywhere, so STOP!
  If you are a native American, be BAD...
  If NOT, stay away from insults towards Europeans!
  (your Gr'Gr'Gr'Dad's ITCH may have produced you, jock!
  
  About Gates and Romania... ASK CHINESE!
  

  4.2.2007 22:54 #24

• twobells

  Buck66m: Why are you constantly yapping on negatively about americans?
  Even your usage of the term 'yank' is so dated.
  Yes, there are americans who are twats, just as some europeans.
  
  I have met and worked with some great 'yanks'; on average americans are a polite, considerate and articulate bunch unlike many europeans, mentioning no names.
  
  If you need to lambast anyone chastise the french ;-)
  
  tb

  6.2.2007 10:16 #25

• Charlieco

  Bill Gates is some philanthropist.

  10.2.2007 04:50 #26

• Wildrat

  Someone above was talking about the S/W being costly and the people of certain countries could not afford it. I beg to differ, in a lot of countries the S/W is priced according to the economy of the country. Just like medicines, Americans are paying out the yang for drugs developed and manufactured here and foreign countries pay next to nothing for the same medicines. I get the majority of my medicines from New Zealand and South America for this reason. In most cases what I pay for 30 to 90 days worth of medicines here will get me a year supply. Bill Gates was smart for not commenting on the Romanians statement. He may not have commented, but he will not forget either. Yes, Eurasia may be 1400 years older than America but America brought Eurasia out of the bronze Age into the Modern Age. I have nothing against Europe, I spent many years over there with the military and quite enjoyed the land and the people. There are some young, dumb, full of cum Billy Bad Asses on both sides of the Atlantic going around running their mouths how they will conquer the world but the truth be said they won't, so calm down and ignore the words, it's the sticks and stones that will hurt you.
  
  Wildrat
  

  Wildrat,
  Beige Computer, with a couple of buttons.

  16.2.2007 09:11 #27

• procode

  It is not so long ago that Bill Gates was reported as saying,"I don't mind ordinary people pirating my software, and gaining familiarity with it, because one day, they will work for a large company, and they will pursuade that large company to use MY sofware too .. !!
  That company WILL then buy my software .. !!
  If that company uses pirate copies instead, I'll sue the pants off them" ..
  
  (Not word for word, I accept, but certainly the giste I gained from his words ..)
  
  Yesteryear eh, when success ruled the World, and not just money .. ;)

  22.2.2007 14:41 #28