14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Vista piracy is a prosperous worldwide business. However, nowhere is it more prosperous that in Russia and China, according to the United States. A total of 12 markets worldwide have been labeled by the US as piracy heavens with Russia and China as top-dogs. Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System are among the most sought after software products in the world. This makes them an excellent target for bootleggers that have stopped at nothing to reek in hefty profits from the commerce with pirated copies of Vista and Office 2007.
There have been reports according to which Microsoft only managed to sell a total of 244 genuine copies of Windows Vista in China in the first two weeks of the product's general availability. Microsoft has failed to either confirm or deny the figures proposed for the Chinese market. Additionally, pirated copies of Windows Vista and Office 2007, worth a mere $4, are sold Ad-Hoc in the center of Moscow, Russia.
It's no wonder that the US placed both Russia and China at the top of the priority watch list, a scenario that involves closer scrutiny in the issue of copyright infringement and that could end up with economic sanctions being taken against all 12 countries. Argentina, Chile, Egypt, India, Israel, Lebanon, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine and Venezuela are the markets that join Russia and China on the list of rampant counterfeiting countries.
"Innovation is the lifeblood of a dynamic economy here in the United States, and around the world," said trade representative Susan C. Schwab. "We must defend ideas, inventions and creativity from ripoff artists and thieves. Large-scale production and distribution of IP-infringing optical media and minimally restrained Internet piracy are among the major problems in Russia that require more enforcement action. The coming months will be a critical period, as Russia moves to implement a variety of legal and law enforcement improvements to which it committed as part of a bilateral agreement with the United States on Russia's eventual accession to the World Trade Organization."