With Windows 8 yet to take off, Microsoft is still struggling to make sure that its new operating system won’t become the new Vista. Including forcing Korean Internet café owners to deploy Windows 8, local businesses have claimed.
An association of Korean Internet café owners has criticized Microsoft Korea in a press conference on December 17, claiming that Microsoft’s local branch is forcing them to buy and install the company’s newest operating system.
What’s more, the association called Microsoft’s efforts in Korea a “reign of tyranny,” explaining that the Redmond-based company is often sending lawyers to convince them that it’s better to make the move to Windows 8.
“Microsoft Korea has threatened us that it is illegal not to purchase Windows 8 for our internet cafes. They say Windows XP is now illegal… they say it is illegal now for consumers to purchase. They get their lawyers together and send us these things, what business can do that?” Lim Sun-hui, an official of the association was quoted as saying by
Asian Correspondent.
“Microsoft Korea wields their monopoly as a weapon to at least double their prices for internet cafes in the last two years and they have the nerve to say they could increase them further still.”
Microsoft Korea, on the other hand, claims that it’s all because of the company’s fight against piracy.
Officials have hinted that some Internet cafés have actually been found using counterfeited Windows copies, so the local businesses are only trying to fight back.
“As long as they are genuine products, we don’t mind if they continue to use Windows 7 or Windows XP. When an official message comes out promoting the use of genuine products, you know, just throw it away,” a company official said according to the same source.
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