Courts Stop MSFT Selling Old Windows in China

By Jane McEntegart
published

A Chinese court has stopped the sale of many versions of Microsoft Windows because of a violation of a licensing agreement.

Zhongyi Electronic claims that Microsoft has been using its Chinese fonts in versions of Windows dating back as far as Windows 95. While Microsoft obtained a license to use the fonts in Windows 95, Zhongyi says the company did not have permission to use them in subsequent versions including Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows 2003, and Windows XP.

Naturally, Microsoft believes this is all one big misunderstanding and says it will be appealing the ruling. According to CNN, Microsoft has said it believes the agreement covers the company's use of the fonts.

The ruling does not affect Microsoft's newest OS, Windows 7, nor does it affect Windows Vista so in reality, this probably means very little for Microsoft in terms of sales. The company said Thursday that it doesn't expect product sales to be affected.

More here and Weezer's Buddy Holly because it came bundled with Windows 95.

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Jane McEntegart
14 Comments Comment from the forums
  • leafblower29
    Well China has a lot of piracy so I doubt for old windows versions it won't make a big difference.
    Reply
  • wildwell
    Since when does China care about protecting intellectual property!?
    Hypocritical bullsh*ters!
    Reply
  • JofaMang
    They are just pissed that they can't get royalties from the pirate printing factories? I don't get it, but wildwell nailed it.
    Reply
  • jerther
    Weezer's Buddy Holly because it came bundled with Windows 95.
    HAHAHA! Yeah! I've watched this so many times :D That and the other music video with that angry old woman that gets splashed by a car :P

    "Good times, bad times every body get up!"
    Reply
  • gpj
    How can you copy protect "letters" from a language (which is essentially what a font is). The Chinese Government probably got the patent in Texas.
    Reply
  • belardo
    We are not all stupid in Texas.
    Reply
  • azcoyote
    China cares about IP!! If the IP is theirs and/or they get a chance to rape the Western world!

    CHINA = PURE EVIL
    Reply
  • falchard
    I think its Microsoft's attempt to make China stop buying Windows XP and move on to Windows 7. Its like "Hey we used your font in Windows '95, can you sue us for using your font in these Windows OS as well so we can stop selling them and not look like the bad guy?"
    Reply
  • @Jerther:
    It's "Good times, bad times, give me some of that." The song is "Good Times" by Edie Brickell.

    Yeah, I used to think being able to watch videos on my PC like the ones on the Win95 CD was one of the greatest things since sliced bread. Of course the MPEG versions wouldn't even play until I upgraded my 486SX 25MHz with an Evergreen 133MHz in the co-processor slot XD
    Reply
  • Gin Fushicho
    Is it just me... or does it seem like all the big companies know how to do now a days is fuck up?
    Reply