Arrest of the Author of Windows XP "Tomato Garden" EditionThe Chinese IT community is abuzz with news of the recent arrest of Hong Lei, author of the popular pirated Windows XP "Tomato Garden" Edition software. I'm not sure where the wacky "Tomato Garden" name came from but it's no laughing matter – this pirated edition of Windows XP is estimated to be installed in many tens of millions of Chinese computers.
The pirated "Tomato Garden" edition of Windows XP is so popular in China because it does not require product activation, includes software/themes that beautifies the Windows XP user interface and comes packaged with other useful free + pirated software tools.
Why Microsoft Pick Tomato Garden as The first dead bird ?
For the Microsoft part:
I think it's a time saving stradage for microsoft to combate with the anti-monopoly law in China. As the chinese saying goes, tomato garden is the first sad bird that unfortunately been picked, since lots of pirate stuff going on in China right now. But tomato garden maybe one of the famous ones. Its online forum is so hot and popular before this sudden accidents happens.
For the chinese government part:
The arrest was probably instigated by a complaint from Microsoft to the Chinese authorities, who are usually quite lax about enforcing intellectual property rights. While this is a step in the right direction, I don't believe it is the start of a broad crackdown on software/music pirates in China – perhaps the authorities are just trying to demonstrate that they are at least doing something about the piracy problem amidst strong pressure and complaints from foreign software/music businesses.
China's own domestic computer software makers have already begun to suffer losses attributable to "lax enforcement" of intellectual property rights.85 In response to the large volume of pirated materials that has overwhelmed the Chinese market, a number of China's domestic companies have begun to realize the damage that copyright infringement can cause and have begun to litigate such cases. For example, the Beijing Weihong Software Research Institute sued Yuanwang Technology in 1993 for "displaying its software at a national computer exhibition without permission from the copyright holder."86 The case was settled in favor of Beijing Weihong, and the plaintiff was awarded approximately $7,900 in damages.87 The government must encourage such cases; developing a system that grants fair trials and proper awards will ultimately lead to a confident, innovative domestic software industry.
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3 comments:
It's a pitty for the Mr.Tomato head.
like he said in the last paragraph. fair amounts..
if its turns out to be 10s of thousands of dollars or millions like is awarded in retarded ass US courts then i say fuck the justice system. lax rules on piracy arent as bad as having an unfair justice system then arbitrarily rewards huge amounts for stupid things like some dumb bitch spilling coffee on her lap and suing mcdonalds for millions of dollars because the coffee was too hot, if anything the only thing the court should have awarded that idiot was a lifetime supply of paper towels, a baby bib, a new pair of pants, and a voucher for a free iced mocha
China is well known in software industry and software development. For example, computer software, is one of their priorities.
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