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MICROSOFT TO PIRATES: PRETTY PLEASE?WHEN BILL CLINTON VISITS Brazil next month, his entourage won't be the only Yankees practicing the fine art of diplomacy. During the President's stay, Microsoft is set to announce a deal worth $10 million to supply PC software to 300,000 Brazilian public schools. In return, the government will tell teachers to use only legal software. But more broadly, in a country where an estimated 68% of the software in use last year was pirated, Microsoft hopes this public gesture of paying for software--albeit at rock-bottom prices--will set a trend. The Brazil deal is part of an international initiative by a software industry weary of losing an estimated $11 billion a year to pirates. No longer are companies relying on threatened trade sanctions. Instead, agreements--similar to the Brazilian sale--have been forged by various software makers with countries as far-flung as Egypt, China, and Mexico. ''In the past, you'd have a bunch of cowboys going around the world threatening people,'' says Orlando Ayala, Microsoft's vice-president of international operations. ''That's not the way to do it.'' The new approach seems to be paying off: Microsoft figures that it booked an extra $100 million in 1997 internationally thanks to its antipiracy efforts.
EDITED BY PAT WECHSLER
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Updated Sept. 11, 1997 by bwwebmaster
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