PuTech Naman!

Most people in the IT field have probably heard the news about Microsoft Philippines being sued for piracy by the Southeastern School based in Pasay. Anyway just read some of the details of the case in the newspapers, so basically the issue is Microsoft bought some print copies of the SEC’s manual then apparently gave away PDF copies of it on CD, which numbers around 700 pieces.

In 2004, Microsoft Philippines reportedly purchased licenses to print 10,000 copies of the SEC manual, now retitled “Innovate: A Mentor’s Guide to ICT Foundation Competencies,” which was used for the company’s “Partners in Learning” program for high school teachers.

In October 2006, Microsoft distributed the manual (in PDF format) through CDs as part of its corporate giveaways during two separate events.

At least 700 copies of the Innovate CDs were allegedly distributed by Microsoft during its two company-sponsored events.

I find it odd that the school Southeastern College choose to sue Microsoft Philippines given that SEC and Microsoft Philippines have worked together before and the relatively small number of copies given away (though this opens the doors for digital piracy). What, they can’t kiss and make up over some CD containing files which the vast majority of the public couldn’t give a rat’s ass about ? I mean a computer manual ?! Raise your hand if you ever just bought a game or computer software and the first thing you did was to read the manual. Heck in this era of Attention Deficit Disorder people don’t even bother finishing the Quick Start Guide. Why do you think Dell has such a huge call center ? It’s to service people who screw up their computers because they didn’t bother to read the computer manual, that’s why.

And Estelito Mendoza as their lead counsel ? Why such a high profile lawyer ? Let’s face it except for the fact that this is new in that it deals with Intellectual Property, it’s just another run of the mill lawsuit.

It seems to me like the Transformers there’s more than meets the eye here. BTW, just for the record the Transformers movie sucked for not including Soundwave. Yeah I know kids probably wouldn’t even recognize a casette tape player, but couldn’t they have turned him into an MP3 player and maybe have LaserBeak and company be SD Cards ?Anyway back to the topic at hand, so what’s really behind the lawsuit ? Did Microsoft Philippines play hardball with Southeastern College giving them no recourse but to sue ? Or did SEC smell money, Micro$oft money ? Is it out of principle, to uphold the intellectual property rights law (excuse me while I suppress my laughter) ? Or is it simply because the owner of the school has a wicked sense of ironic humor.

Me, I’m hoping it’s the last reason…

P.S.

Speaking of money who’s ass did they pull out the P100 million figure from ? Let’s see P100 million divided by 700 copies illegally distributed equals P142,857.14 ?!? Who sells books at P142,857.14 a piece, shouldn’t they be selling it at P142,849.95 ? Now if they’re saying they lost sales of P100 million due to piracy of the manual, all I can say is LOL, not even sure Harry Potter sold that much here…