Romanian President: We Owe It All to Piracy

• BÃ¥seline

  4 Feb 07, 16:28

  When he met Bill Gates, Romanian President Traian Basescu basically said that the country built its IT industry based on pirated Microsoft software.
  
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  Pirated Microsoft Corp software helped Romania to build a vibrant technology industry, Romanian President Traian Basescu told the company's co-founder Bill Gates on Thursday.
  
  Basescu was meeting the software giant's chairman in Bucharest to celebrate the opening of a Microsoft global technical center in the Romanian capital.
  
  "Piracy helped the young generation discover computers. It set off the development of the IT industry in Romania," Basescu said during a joint news conference with Gates.
  
  "It helped Romanians improve their creative capacity in the IT industry, which has become famous around the world ... Ten years ago, it was an investment in Romania's friendship with Microsoft and with Bill Gates."
  
  Gates made no comment.
  
  See more over HERE.
• the Bear

  4 Feb 07, 16:31

  hahahahaha!
  
  actually, it's the same here
  
  in the 90's we ALL used pirated stuff
• manyu882

  4 Feb 07, 19:34

  yea, w/o piracy, i wont be here liao
• Ito_^

  4 Feb 07, 20:05

  yeah. i owe everything i have to piracy. this has got to be communism's best revenge statement against capitalism.
  
  

  Foreign investors say Romania's IT sector is one of most promising industries in the fast-growing economy thanks to high level of technical education in Romania, low wages and the country's thriving underworld of computers hackers.

  
• kenn3th

  5 Feb 07, 22:22