{"id":426524,"date":"2021-12-08T09:23:21","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T07:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=426524"},"modified":"2021-12-08T09:33:16","modified_gmt":"2021-12-08T07:33:16","slug":"microsoft-offering-big-discounts-to-pirates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/software\/426524-microsoft-offering-big-discounts-to-pirates.html","title":{"rendered":"Microsoft offering big discounts to pirates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft has started offering users running pirated versions of its Microsoft 365 productivity apps significant discounts to get them to buy a genuine licence for the software.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ghacks.net\/2021\/12\/03\/pirated-versions-of-office-are-getting-a-discount-offer-for-a-microsoft-365-subscription\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Ghacks reported<\/strong><\/a> that a user in India who was running a pirated version of Excel received a message in their ribbon bar offering up to 50% off a legal copy of Microsoft 365.<\/p>\n<p>Clicking on the link directed them to an information page about how running pirated software exposed their PC to security threats.<\/p>\n<p>The warning said the risks of running counterfeit software included:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"c-list\">\n<li>Exposure to virus and malware attacks\u200b\u200b<\/li>\n<li>Corrupted files and data loss<\/li>\n<li>Inability to receive critical updates or edit files<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It then gave them the option to purchase either a Microsoft 365 Family or Microsoft 365 Personal annual subscription with a 50% discount applied at checkout.<\/p>\n<p>The family plan provides access to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook for up to 6 people. It also includes 1TB of OneDrive cloud storage per person.<\/p>\n<p>The personal option is for a single user with the same apps and 1TB of cloud storage.<\/p>\n<p>The discount only applies to the first year of an annual subscription, with the regular subscription applying after that time.<\/p>\n<p>Below is the offer shown to the user in India.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Microsoft-discount-.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-426528\" src=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Microsoft-discount-.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Microsoft-discount-.jpg 1920w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Microsoft-discount--600x265.jpg 600w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Microsoft-discount--640x283.jpg 640w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Microsoft-discount--768x340.jpg 768w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Microsoft-discount--1536x679.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Microsoft-discount--1200x531.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The promotional offer could be an attempt by the software giant to curb the unlawful use of its applications in specific regions.<\/p>\n<p>A previous analysis by Microsoft <a href=\"https:\/\/economictimes.indiatimes.com\/tech\/software\/microsoft-tests-show-91-new-pcs-from-india-loaded-with-pirated-software\/articleshow\/66475487.cms\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>showed<\/strong><\/a> that over 90% of personal computers in India had a high level of pirated software.<\/p>\n<p>The discount also appears to be available on Microsoft 365&#8217;s US website, but changing the URL from &#8220;en-US&#8221; to &#8220;en-ZA&#8221; presented a &#8220;the page you requested cannot be found&#8221; error.<\/p>\n<p>We attempted to buy the subscription from a Microsoft account without a licence but were told we were not eligible for the offer.<\/p>\n<p>Taking up the offer requires logging in to a Microsoft account, which means the company might first need to have identified the potential sign-up as coming from a computer with pirated software.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">Now read: <a href=\"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/software\/426260-this-new-tool-lets-you-install-any-android-app-on-windows-11.html\" rel=\"bookmark\">This new tool lets you install any Android app on Windows 11<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Microsoft has started offering users running pirated versions of its Microsoft 365 productivity apps big discounts to get them to buy a genuine licence for the software.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":414518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[54025,35,123,44440,6599,125,12145],"class_list":["post-426524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-software","tag-excel","tag-headline","tag-microsoft","tag-microsoft-365","tag-microsoft-office","tag-piracy","tag-pirated-software"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426524"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":426536,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426524\/revisions\/426536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}