Every year, the United States governments publishes its Special 301 Report on international piracy. The list identifies the worst abusers of intellectual property and is known as “Priority Watch List”. The list is not a comprehensive ranking, just those nations whom are the worst in downloaded copyright material.

The U.S. government specifically points out how governments fail to protect intellectual property, because of that many nations resent being placed on the list and submit briefs to the U.S. government defending their policies in an effort to avoid being singled out. This year 46 nations made the list. One of those nations is the state of Israel:

Israel was one of twenty countries to submit briefs to the US defending their laws and policies. The Israeli brief anticipated the criticism over the absence of anti-circumvention legislation, rules that provide legal protection for technological protection measures (TPMs).

It argued that “given the industry objections to TPM, lack of uniform implementation worldwide and its nascent obsolescence, non implementation of TPM can not be the basis for determining that a country, as in the words of the Trade Act of 1974 (19 USC 2242) ‘denies adequate and effective protection of intellectual property rights or deny fair and equitable market access to US persons who rely on intellectual property protection.’”

The US ignored the argument (and its own law) and placed Israel on the Priority Watch list.

The United States likewise dismissed the briefs of other nations. I personal do not care that Israelis engage in piracy. I did not write this post to somehow imply Israelis are bad for doing this or that they do this more than anyone else. Israelis can pirate all they want.

I wrote this post to note the irony of Israel’s placement, as my title explicitly states. The reason is because Microsoft is one of the chief supporter of such lists and combating piracy. The IT giant recently called for “Arab unity,” no less, to champion of the cause against piracy. But while Microsoft is busy lecturing Arabs, many of whom could not afford real copies of shitty Windows, the company seems to be oblivious to the fact that Israel is a worst offender than Israel. Microsoft is oblivious and, yet, Microsoft’s largest R&D facility is in Israel! Before lecturing Arabs, why doesn’t Microsoft look in its own backward?

Microsoft in Israel.

And, by the way, if you ever wondered why despite the claims of a better operating system, Windows still falls short especially in comparison to Apple. Why everyone who buys a Windows must also purchase security software with it because the built-in security patch is nearly worthless? Well, now you have your answer. You can thank Israeli researchers for that wonder.