While sharing a stage with Bill Gates at a Vista launch, Romanian president Traian Basescu said that Romania's software industry owes its existence to pirated software. Gates pretended he didn't hear him.
According to Reuters, Basescu said, during a joint news conference with Gates, that piracy helped the younger generation discover computers. It set off the development of the IT industry in Romania.
It also helped Romanians improve their creative capacity in the IT industry, which has become famous around the world. He claimed that all this piracy "ten years ago" was an investment in Romania's friendship with Microsoft and with Bill Gates.
