Is this price is to good to be true? Well...... maybe......

For years, Microsoft has been telling us that "if the price of a Microsoft product seems too good to be true, it is probably counterfeit" and for years, that has caused many to pay more than they had to pay for their software. To understand what I am talking about, you have to know a little about software and exactly what it is.


Software is intangible. A thought. A process. Intellectual property. It is a specific combination of binary 1's and 0's that tell a computer to perform certain functions. Basically, it is making yes or no decisions for thousands (and possibly millions) of questions per second. Software only resides on media like a floppy disk, CD, DVD or a hard drive as a means of transfer from one form of storage to another. Since software is intellectual property, what you are really purchasing is the "right to use" the intellectual property more commonly known as a "license". This may come as a surprise to many of you. What that really means is that $350.00 piece of Microsoft Office you just purchased is not yours, it still belongs to Microsoft. You merely paid for the right to use the software. This is all covered in the EULA (End User License Agreement) that you probably agreed to without reading.


So, now we get to the reason for all of this......


Software piracy is a huge problem worldwide. The BSA, Microsoft and other manufacturers like Adobe, Corel and Symantec do a great job of telling us that much of what is out there is counterfeit. What they are telling you is absolutely true. Because software is intellectual property and resides on media forms such as floppy disks, CD's and DVD's, anyone who has the knowledge, can copy this intellectual property on to their own media and sell it. This is illegal because, the copyright owner is not being paid for the "extra copy" versions of their property that exist. These companies spend MILLIONS of dollars developing software and they have the right to be paid for each and every "copy" of their intellectual property that exists and is being used.


Usually, these "extra copies" of software are sold at a very cheap price and therefore, we get the phrase "if the price seems too good to be true .......". I could give you hundreds of examples of blatantly counterfeit products out there on the internet. You have seen them...... $59.00 for Windows XP Professional. $68.00 for Office 2003 Professional. $49.00 for Adobe CS4 and the list can go on and on. You can't type in a software related keyword in any search engine without finding someone selling counterfeit software.


You might ask, why the software manufacturers don't just sue these guys. Well, that is easier said than done. It can take years to build a case against these pirates. They are elusive and often change company names or shut down completely after some time and pop back up somewhere else. The internet is a great place for these types of people to hide. Things have changed quickly in the software industry and not for the better. In the past, there have been huge raids on large scale counterfeiting operations and millions of dollars in counterfeit products have been seized. People have gone to jail, but now these companies have become smarter and have evolved onto the internet. They are not carrying any inventory like they used to and are now shipping directly from countries like China. If you have purchased from any of these online companies and have received your product from China, there is a 99.99999% chance that the product you purchased is counterfeit. They look very close to the original, legitimate software produced by the manufacturer, but they are time bombs in disguise. At any time, these manufacturers can audit companies in regards to their software licensing and the fines are very very steep. Not to mention, they can remotely check for legitimacy and disable or turn off the programs if they believe them to be counterfeit.

Now to my point.......

There are still legitimate ways of getting discounted brand named software from manufacturers like Microsoft, Symantec and Adobe. Retail Box, OEM and Electronic Licensing directly from the manufacturer are the ONLY legitimate forms of software from these major manufacturers. Companies like DirectDeals.com only sell legitimate Retail Box, OEM and Electronic License products from major manufactures’. We are a discount warehouse that sells directly to the public so our prices are very competitive. We buy from traditional and non-traditional sources to get the best prices available and do our best to pass those savings on to our customers. This causes our prices to change drastically at times, but we do our best to be consistent with prices and keep the most popular products in stock. Previous blog posts on this site give you a better understanding of Retail Box and OEM. You should read those and save hundreds of dollars on your next software purchase buying GENUINE PRODUCTS from DirectDeals.com.