Opinion: French Linux users against pirating Microsoft

The French have somehow picked up a reputation as haters of big American business. It's not hard to see how that came about, when you consider that their biggest folk hero of recent years, the farmer José Bové, was catapulted to fame almost overnight for his part in the 1999 destruction of a new McDonald's fast-food restaurant in a rural corner of southern France.

So it's doubly strange to hear of the latest initiative by the French Association of Linux Users (AFUL): The group wants the government to crack down on piracy of software products from companies such as Microsoft, it announced Tuesday (announcement in French). It also wants stores to display separately the price of software packages such as Microsoft Office when they are bundled with new computers, so that consumers are aware of their true cost.

Come again? Linux users - and French ones at that - are trying to stop something that might be hurting Microsoft? Have they gone mad?

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The French have somehow picked up a reputation as haters of big American business. It's not hard to see how that came about, when you consider that their biggest folk hero of recent years, the farmer José Bové, was catapulted to fame almost overnight for his part in the 1999 destruction of a new McDonald's fast-food restaurant in a rural corner of southern France.

So it's doubly strange to hear of the latest initiative by the French Association of Linux Users (AFUL): The group wants the government to crack down on piracy of software products from companies such as Microsoft, it announced Tuesday (announcement in French). It also wants stores to display separately the price of software packages such as Microsoft Office when they are bundled with new computers, so that consumers are aware of their true cost.

Come again? Linux users - and French ones at that - are trying to stop something that might be hurting Microsoft? Have they gone mad?

It may appear that way, but there is method in their madness, according to AFUL spokesman Bernard Lang: Rampant piracy actually helps Microsoft in some markets, he says, and that's why AFUL wants the government to put a stop to it.

Companies like Microsoft sell different versions of their products at prices that appeal to different markets. For instance, Microsoft Office 2003 Professional edition carries the highest price of all the versions of the Office suite. There's also the Standard version, available at a lower price but with fewer features, and an even cheaper edition, with a more restrictive license, for academics and students.

That doesn't address the whole market, however. At the bottom end, there are many prospective customers who can't afford the €580 ($700) retail price of Microsoft Office 2003 Standard edition. And that's precisely how piracy helps Microsoft, according to Lang: The company is not actually losing a sale if a hard-up consumer copies Office - but it is retaining market share at the expense of open source alternatives and contributing to the vital network reinforcing effect that makes people use Microsoft Office because everyone else uses it.

"It's in Microsoft's interest that even the impoverished use their software," Lang said.

Business users tend not to pirate software because of the high penalties if they are caught, according to Lang: The real culprits are home users.

The IT industry is in part responsible for this piracy, according to AFUL: Because of the way prices are displayed for bundles of software and hardware sold together, consumers are led to believe that software is free - and so, naturally, don't want to pay for it.

Of course, says Lang, there's no reason why consumers should pay for software when open source alternatives are available for free.

If otherwise law-abiding citizens appreciated the true cost of software such as Microsoft Office, Lang contends, they'd be less likely to pirate it - hence the group's demand that stores display the price of the software element of a bundle.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.