Why is Microsoft able to do this? Because the majority of computer users in China are using Microsoft's products. This company's market share is far above 50 percent, which is the same case in other countries. With few choices, most consumers can only turn to Microsoft. Without competition, Microsoft can always maintain a high price for its products and dares to defy computer users by launching privacy-threatening anti-piracy campaigns.

Xu Chunming (Oriental Morning Post): China's intellectual property law has provided necessary means for Microsoft to turn to legal proceedings to safeguard infringement on its intellectual property rights within China. Ironically, Microsoft explicitly expressed that it would not "lodge lawsuits" when it launched the blackout move.

At the same time, the Chinese law also allows intellectual property rights' owners to protect their rights through legal methods. However, even if they take legal measures, they should not threaten the privacy of computer users.

Microsoft's blackout move has caused panic and inconvenience among the users and even affected the performance of non-Microsoft software. Its testing procedures also render users' privacy and business confidentials vulnerable.

The intellectual property rights of software need to be effectively protected, but the practice is not supposed to be revenge and punishment on software users. By no means should Microsoft do things beyond the legal limit. If not, the blackout move is likely to slip into the ambit of copyright violence, meaning the situation becomes one of violence against violence.

Zhang Ruoyu (Xiaoxiang Morning Herald): Some Chinese users prefer pirated versions of software only because of their low prices. Against this, uprooting piracy should be conducted in a way where their actual purchasing power is taken into consideration. Microsoft imposes a fixed price around the world. An original version of Windows XP sells for $199 in the United States, which is equal to about 1,400 yuan in the Chinese market. For Americans whose per-capita monthly salary is about $3,000, to buy an original version is not a big problem. For the Chinese, whose per-capita monthly income just reaches $200, $199 is really a huge expenditure. If Microsoft offers a more acceptable price to the Chinese, no one will choose pirated copies.

In this sense, although piracy is illegal, Microsoft also needs to reconsider its pricing policy. Despite occasional promotional sales programs in recent years, its high price strategy remains in place. As a result, the battle between piracy and anti-piracy will forever last, with no winners.

Liu Peng (China Youth Daily): First of all, by taking the blackout option, Microsoft chose the wrong target. Although the pirated product users are responsible for the rampant expansion of this market to some extent, it is the piracy businesses that produce these products and offer them to users. This is the fundamental reason for piracy. Therefore, the key is to crack down on the businesses making the fake products.

Second, the time is not ripe yet for Microsoft to curb piracy by directly intruding on computer users' systems. Although piracy has been outlawed, still China lacks relevant laws to ban the purchase and use of pirated copies.

Besides, the price of genuine Microsoft software is expensive to most Chinese computer users. Although the price has been reduced several times, because of Microsoft's dominant status in the software market, the prices of most of its products are still high. This is an important reason for users to turn to pirated products.

We support the action to crack down on piracy, but before it takes action toward computer users, Microsoft needs to reconsider the prices of its genuine products and China's software market also needs further regulation.

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