What Do You Mean You Want a Non-Pirated Program?

Annoying-lah! Inspiration strikes at the most interesting times. As I was sitting waiting for the train I was writing quite a funny little piece for my blog and then the whole thing just vaporized. Grrr... Well anyway, I'm on said train now, on my way to KLIA. I head to Jakarta this afternoon for my last chance to get materials for my thesis.

This weekend, I got locked out of my thesis. Yes, locked out. See, I bought a new computer a few months back. And when I bought it, I needed to get a MS Word program for it, as it didn't come already installed. No biggie I thought. I can buy it anywhere. I went on the Microsoft website and they were offering a two month free trial download. SO I put that on, and figured I could upgrade online in two months time. So, the other day I get a message saying the trail period had expired. But I couldn't purchase the full version on line. In the meantime, my thesis is locked and I can't do anything with it until I convert the program.

Pirated software in Malaysia is in abundance. However, I don't like the idea of putting pirated software in my computer, or using it at all for that matter. It's a bit like unprotected sex. You don't know where it's been, so why would you put it in your hard drive? Problem is, the pirated software is SO common here that no one bothers to carry the real version (except maybe for the purpose of copying it), making it damn hard to be a moral law-abiding citizen. We searched all weekend for the stupid program and found a couple of things. 1) it is damn near impossible to find (whats the point in having it in stock when no one is going to buy it anyway?), and 2) it is prohibitively expensive. On USD, yes, I can afford it, but it still hurts MY pocketbook, but if you're on local currency, it costs the equivalent of half to a full months salary (that of a mid-level professional) to purchase a real copy of the office software. So, now I have a question for Bill Gates. I know that this man is aware of the massive wealth disparities between the west and the east, so why on earth has his company not come out with a version of this almost must have software that is affordable in the countries it sells in? Microsoft did a bang up job of making it's software needed in virtually every office in the world, but if they expect people to stop using pirated versions of their software, they need to come up with a more affordable version of it for people in developing countries.

In the end, I never did find a copy of the software I was looking for in any of the malls in KL. There was one at Low Yat, but considering most of what is sold out of there IS pirated, it is quite difficult to know if the what they are seeling you actually is real or not. I prefer not to drop RM1000 only to find out later that it's actually a RM 10 pirated copy. Luckily, D has a colleague whose wife works at Microsoft here in KL. She appears to have tracked down a distributer in KL who has the version I need, thus keeping my conscience and my hard drive clean. But as soon as I'm finished with this blog, I'm going to write to Bill Gates and give him a piece of my mind. (I hear he gets 2 million emails a day, so I guess it'll be awhile before I get a response...)