Software piracy is the biggest threat

Microsoft's latest move to fight software piracy on the mainland has stirred a storm of controversy in the local media and on the Internet. Although nobody has been able to produce a convincing argument against Microsoft, many commentators furiously attacked the company for what they considered as the "persecution" of tens of millions of counterfeit software users, who apparently included many commercial enterprises.

Newspaper stories and commentaries charged that by threatening to black out the screens of computers running on pirated Microsoft's operating system or productivity software, the US company was "striking terror" into the minds of mainland computer users, many of whom weren't even aware that they were using counterfeit products. Others called for government intervention to thwart what they saw as a "conspiracy of hegemony" by the US software giant.

The whole idea of IPR, or intellectual property rights, was conveniently ignored amid the rabid attacks on Microsoft for taking the protection of its royalties into its own hand. Although some commentators questioned the legality of Microsoft's action, nobody is known to have contested it in a court of law.