Windows 2000 Launched In Russia - By Pirates

Russian pirates have beaten Microsoft to the release date of Windows 2000.

Reports suggest that "gold code" versions of Windows 2000 are now available on street stalls in Moscow, selling for around $3 - a fraction of the price of the legitimate version of the software.

Reuters said that copies of the new operating system - presumably beta code versions, Newsbytes notes - have been available through pirate channels in Russia for several months.

Reuters quoted a Moscow railway station software stallholder, Yura, as saying that the pirate versions of Windows 2000 have gone down well with PC users.

"No one has returned it," he told the wire service.

The service also quotes Gamid Kostoyev, Microsoft's marketing manager for Russia, as admitting that around 90 percent of software sold in the region is pirated.

Microsoft's piracy problem in Russia is echoed elsewhere in Eastern Europe, Newsbytes notes. Despite intellectual property legislation having been passed in Russia, Poland and other countries in the region, piracy is still endemic.

But, with average rates of pay in Russia measured in fractions of that in the West, Microsoft's decision to only discount its software by around a third for the Eastern European region has to be questioned also, Newsbytes notes.

Microsoft's web site is at http://www.microsoft.com.

Reported by Newsbytes.com, http://www.newsbytes.com.