An anti-piracy software campaign recently launched in the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania has significantly lifted Microsoft_s sales in the region, a company official announced Tuesday.
Published:
2 February 2000 y., Wednesday
"It was a tremendous success and we are starting to build our business in these countries," Bo Cruse, Microsoft managing director for the Baltic region said at a briefing in Vilnius. At the end of the six-month campaign, Microsoft_s sales in January were up around 500 percent in Lithuania, and 300 percent in Estonia and Latvia.
Software piracy remains common in the Baltic states. According to Microsoft_s estimates the percentage of illegal software dipped only from 92 percent to 81 percent in Lithuania, from 90 percent to 85 percent in Latvia and from 86 percent to 72 percent in Estonia following the legalization campaign.
The average for Europe is about 40 percent and for the Nordic countries about 35 percent, according to Norvald Heidel, Microsoft's anti-piracy manager for the Baltic and Nordic regions. Microsoft and the Business Software Alliance also worked with police and computer sellers to promote enforcement of software licenses. More than 30 court cases have been filed for copyright infringement following a crackdown on resellers and private users.
A Lithuanian government official admitted that 40-60 percent of the government_s software is illegal, and said that nearly $1 million would be needed to buy legal copies.
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
The European Parliament's proposal for its own operational budget for 2011 includes the financing of measures in preparation for enlargement with Croatia.
more »
Links between business and the academic world need to be strengthened but higher education institutions must retain their autonomy and public support, says a resolution adopted on Thursday by the European Parliament.
more »
The Spanish Minister of Economy and Finance, Elena Salgado, will present the additional fiscal tightening measures set out by the Spanish Government to her eurozone (Eurogroup) counterparts on Monday; the measures were required by Spain’s European partners as a condition of approving the plan to bolster the euro on 9 May.
more »
The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation under EU State aid rules into capital injections destined to two subsidiaries of state owned company Elan Skupina in Slovenia.
more »
GDP growth in the EU expected to gradually pick up, though recovery less robust than past upturns.
more »
The EESC tabled its opinion on the regulation of alternative investment funds, such as hedge funds and private funds. Although endorsing the much debated proposal of the European Commission, the EESC calls for uniform risk data provision for all such funds and emphasizes their responsibility in triggering the crisis.
more »
Concluding the process and deciding on the schedule for releasing the funds agreed on for Greece, as well as examining and learning lessons from the crisis for the governance of the eurozone, will be the focus of the discussions of the heads of state and government at the meeting in Brussels this Friday.
more »
The EU pavilion at the world expo in Shanghai marks the first time the EU has presented itself to a large Chinese audience.
more »
Shanghai's World Expo offers visitors plenty of fun offering bizarre things to do at over 200 pavillions competing for attention.
more »
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is providing a loan of EUR 150 million to MVM Zrt. for the capacity increase and the extension of a high-voltage transmission network, partly constituting priority axes of the Trans-European Energy Network (TEN-E) in Hungary.
more »