Microsoft Soft Approach to Windows 7 Anti-piracy Update in China
Later this month users worldwide will automatically start to receive this update that will verify if the operating system is genuine later this month, however Chinese users will not receive it until summer, as Microsoft tries a softer approach to fighting software piracy in China. It has been a long time since foreign companies started complaining about poor protection of intellectual property rights in China, but the problem is pretty much not just with the users, but with low government regulations as well. In late 2008 Microsoft has caused backlash among Chinese users, when it released an update that turned the screens of computers with pirated versions of Windows XP black. The update for Windows 7 will be much softer, as while detecting the known methods to activate unlicensed copies of the operating system, it will simply change the background picture to black and give regular messages about the problem, leaving the operating system working. At the same time Microsoft is launching a series of marketing campaigns in China to explain the risks of counterfeit software and how users can tell if their Microsoft software is genuine and is hoping to get better results then with the campaign in 2008.