Gates: China, India Piracy Battle Will Take a Decade

On Friday, Bill Gates, Microsoft’s chief, said beating software piracy in India and China and boosting those country’s compliance levels to U.S. and European standards would take a decade, Reuters reports.

“In India and China it will be a decade before we get that level,” Gates said at a World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “But as long as there is year-by-year progress, it holds a great opportunity for us in terms of scale, which helps us do more, and it’s a great place where we have people working for us.”

Microsoft’s market penetration in both China and India increases every year, Gates said, and he’s optimistic that both countries will soon start licensing, as Taiwan and South Korea have.

Check out, Microsoft to Launch Web Research Lab, Microsoft to License Windows Source Code, EU Commish Surprised by Microsoft Source Code Offer and Microsoft Takes Aim as RIM Battles in Courtfor more recent CIO coverage of Microsoft’s trials, tribulations and successes.

-Al Sacco