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I was reading the RSS feed of this Danish IT news site called ComON, and came across this story about Swedish government offices using "pirated" software. Since I know pretty much all of you don't read Danish, here's a translation:

A report from the Swedish state office has revealed that a large amount of public offices has used pirated software. BSA is now threatening with a fine in the millions.

The pirate hunters at the Business Software Alliance (BSA) is now threatening the Swedish authorities with a giant fine. Because a report from the state office has revealed, that more than 50 public offices uses unlicensed software.

"We are looking forward to talking to the government regarding this. It will be interesting to see, which results they are getting at." said John Hugosson, spokesman for the Swedish BSA to IDG.se.

The BSA says that the authorities will be treated the same way as corporations who use pirated software. The organization is ready to go to court, if the dealings with the authorities don't lead to a result.

Source: http://www.comon.dk/index.php/news/show/id=32778

Some things probably sound a little strange, but there are words that I don't know the analoge for in English. For example, in Denmark, our prime minister is called the "minister of state" or "state minister", now that one I do know, but a few others I don't.

Anyway, in Denmark we like to make jokes about the Swedes, in a friendly fashion of course. And I'm sure they do the same about us or the Norwegians. But I was just cracked up when I saw this! I just thought "Monkeys! Use free software, damn it!! Quit wasting money you could be using on improving the schools!!!".

Hehe!
Yeah the country that invented Pirate Bay is definetly living up to it's reputation.
I'm sure my Danish neighbours are not that much worse.
I'm currently living in China I left Sweden 1995. I think we have he same problem over here software is free people don't even bother to buy the stripped 3$ legal copies because the pirated versions are free and Pro version.
Hard to promote Linux and to be honest I was in the same boat if it wasn't for my younger brother who opened up my eyes ( he still lives in Sweden).
I haven't heard of any Danish jokes mostly it's against the lovely and friendly Norvegians but I certainly wished the Danes would swallow the porridge before they talk so we could understand them (reading is easy).

Shanghai wrote:Hehe!
Yeah the country that invented Pirate Bay is definetly living up to it's reputation.

Hehe true, however if the government ends up paying BSA a big fat fine, I'm just gonna be eternally pissed, because that money could have fed thousands of children in Africa, or heck it could have been used to improve life for the children in our own countries!
Sure we can't change the world this easily, but I just hate seeing money thrown out the window and then heard the same people that threw it out complain that they don't have enough money.

Shanghai wrote:I'm sure my Danish neighbours are not that much worse.

Hehe, likely true. Although I would love to see the schools in Denmark use more free software, I mean it would just simply be better for them! The thing is though .... there's a reason am planning to write an article titled "Denmark Under Microsoft Occupation".

Shanghai wrote:I'm currently living in China I left Sweden 1995. I think we have he same problem over here software is free people don't even bother to buy the stripped 3$ legal copies because the pirated versions are free and Pro version.
Hard to promote Linux and to be honest I was in the same boat if it wasn't for my younger brother who opened up my eyes ( he still lives in Sweden).

I hear what you're saying, which is why I say "GO FOR IT!" when Microsoft talks about "copy protection" and all that cruft.
My aunt is a good example, when I initially built a new computer for her, to replace her piece of shit 1994 IBM PC running Windows 98 and Office 97, I set her up with Mandriva 2007 and OpenOffice 2.0. However, eventually she ended up shelling out the cash for Windows XP and Office 2003 and antivirus, because she just couldn't comprehend using OpenOffice.org at home, and Microsoft Office at work. Sure it's not her job to know two Office suites, but people who can afford it rather pay their way out of situations where they actually have to use their brains.

Shanghai wrote:I haven't heard of any Danish jokes mostly it's against the lovely and friendly Norvegians but I certainly wished the Danes would swallow the porridge before they talk so we could understand them (reading is easy).

Yeah, Danish is a really awkward language, I'll definitely agree with that! However, in the same way that it may be hard for you to understand Danish, it's just as hard for me as a Dane to understand Swedish or Norwegian. Some people can do this, but I can't.

Pirate software is rife everywhere in the former soviet states too.

allix wrote:Pirate software is rife everywhere in the former soviet states too.

Which means your computer, right?

I'm pretty well convinced that MS would lose as much as 1/3 to 1/2 of its marketshare if all pirated versions of windows disappeared tomorrow. Whether this is the their detriment is anyones guess.

Snarkout wrote:I'm pretty well convinced that MS would lose as much as 1/3 to 1/2 of its marketshare if all pirated versions of windows disappeared tomorrow. Whether this is the their detriment is anyones guess.

Yeah, I agree. The only people I know who uses a authorized copies of Windows, is people who got it included with their computer. The people I know who still uses the computer they got when they got confirmed all use pirated versions of Windows and Office.

That should have said "whether this is to their detriment" - sometimes my fingers get lazier than my brain.