Microsoft's Moscow office

Do you remember the days when all software in Russia was bootleg and it wasn't worth an effort to try to sell the legal copies? Well, those days are gone. Russian families and businesses finally make enough money to forgo the challenges of viruses and cracking headaches of illegal software, and just pay hard dollars to good old Redmond, WA -based Microsoft.

The piracy is still rampant throughout Russia; but so it is in America, where music artists must hit the road to make income even after their songs reach Top-40 chart positions. Not to compare apples to oranges, but as far as business is concerned, it's all copyright law, respect for the law, and its enforcement. Lady Gaga lost several million dollars on her album release -- mostly due to teenage piracy and lacking sales; 99 cents an album creates a financial loss even on transaction, not counting the fixed costs of production and label's overhead. However, she is the hottest selling show in the world, and that's where the real money is. Even in the Western world where internet is fast and respect for copyrights is low, the money is in "bread and circuses" and not in legal digital downloads.

Given the financial crisis in America and relative financial prosperity in Russia and Brazil, Microsoft is seriously concentrating its efforts on those "developing" markets. Russian market yielded over $1 billion in revenues for Microsoft in just one year, and continues to significantly grow. Microsoft has offices in 70 Russian cities, and its best-selling products in Russia are Microsoft Sharepoint Server and Microsoft Project. Once again, private business proves to be more capable of reset and healthy international relations than our respective governments...