Straits Times Report: Laptop sent for repair loaded with bootleg XPLink:
http://www.straitstimes.com/Singapore/Story/STIStory_220534.htmlA BRITON who has lived here for 11 years got a rude shock when he turned on his Hewlett-Packard (HP) laptop, only to be flashed a message saying that its copy of Windows XP was a bootleg one.
Mr Anthony Jeff, 56, had just picked up the machine from an HP-authorised service centre in Guangzhou, China, where he was on a business trip.
His bought-in-Singapore laptop kept crashing during the trip, so the globe-trotting businessman sent it to an HP-authorised service centre there, since the machine had a limited international warranty.
The service centre told him that it did not have any more stock of the English version of Windows XP software, and that the default version used in China was the one in Chinese, but Mr Jeff insisted on having an English version installed.
An HP spokesman said: 'The engineer was under pressure and downloaded an English version from the Web without obtaining a licence from Microsoft.'
Mr Jeff, who was not told this, discovered it only when he turned on the machine.
'Fortunately for me, I did not turn on the laptop in front of my clients that day. It would have been utterly embarrassing for me,' he said.
He runs day2daytrading, a maker of decorative furniture and licensed toys like Buck Rogers, and is married to a Singaporean.
Mr Jeff returned to confront the service centre staff the next day, only to be taken aback by their nonchalance. He was told it was 'normal' in China because 'everyone uses copies'.
HP has since clarified that it gives strict guidelines to its authorised service centres against installing illegal copies of operating systems.
Its spokesman added that the company took the matter seriously, and that it would discipline the engineer and 'reiterate the importance of our service policy to all our partners'.
China has been in the spotlight for its rampant software piracy over the years, but industry observers say the incident was not about piracy but a failure in HP's support service.
Mr Tarun Sawney, anti-piracy director for the software piracy watchdog Business Software Alliance Asia, said: 'Using an unlicensed product key to download software is definitely illegal, but this is the first time I've heard of a service centre doing something like this.'
Technology lawyer Bryan Tan said: 'The attitude of the service centre reflects the general lackadaisical attitude in China towards using genuine software.'
Meanwhile, HP Singapore has settled the matter with Mr Jeff: It has paid for his return air ticket to China on business class, repaired his old laptop, given him a new one and also an HP iPaq smartphone.
Mr Jeff is happy with the way the company has resolved his problem. He remains an HP fan - and not because of its compensatory moves. When he had to buy a new laptop in China after the one with the illegal Windows XP could not work, he chose an HP.
Article selected by: Shi Rong (07A102)
Shi Rong's Analysis (Or Whatever you call it)Anyway, I am showing you all this article as it shows how serious the piracy problem is, since even non-perpetuators can be affected by it. This article can also show the large scope of this issue in China considering the comment made in the article and that it affects large corporations like HP in this case. This certainly gives piracy hunters another thing to do in their checklists: Ensuring that pirated software is not transmitted to customers.
Labels: Economy, Piracy, Shi Rong (07A102)
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