Microsoft has always been one of the companies that tried to take measures against online piracy, pretty much because its software is among the most pirated in the entire world, so the Redmond-based tech giant has recently signed an MoU with many other companies and the anti-piracy organization Rights Alliance to fight online IP infringement.

The new agreement, which also involves big names such as Google and several large Internet service providers, was proposed by the Ministry of Culture in Denmark and calls for all companies not only to fight against piracy online but also to work together to reduce the financial damages caused by such practices.

As TorrentFreak reports today, the Memorandum of Understanding also involves rights group Koda, which protects the rights of more than 40,000 composers, songwriters, and music publishers, while payment services such as MasterCard agreed to join the effort to fight financial crime.

As part of the deal, companies that signed the MoU will launch programs to prevent copyright violation and to promote the benefits of paying for content online, thus trying to convince more people across the world to stick to legal products instead of piracy.

The issue of piracy for Microsoft

Microsoft, in particular, has a very hard time fighting piracy, and the company’s own Windows and Office software solutions have been among the most pirated products in the world in the last decade.

Recently, the company has managed to track down a Windows pirate who tried to activate hundreds of copies of the operating system from the same IP, so it has started legal action to prevent similar cases in the future and to ask for damages.

Similar legal disputes are taking place in many locations across the world, but Microsoft still has a hard time fighting piracy, especially in some markets such as China.

Steve Ballmer, former Microsoft CEO, said that 9 out of 10 Windows copies in China were pirated, emphasizing that convincing users to switch to genuine Windows and working with authorities to promote the use of legal software was mostly impossible.

Right now, the best way to address piracy is to develop software that’s harder to crack, and Microsoft is believed to be working on such technology for Windows 10, but only time will tell whether or not the new operating system is indeed the kind of software that everyone needs to buy.