Microsoft will offer incentives to help quickly legalise the software market in Serbia, opening a customer support centre in Belgrade in September 2002, the daily Danas reported. A mass-media campaign on legalisation will be launched at the same time, in the first steps to reign in a pirating-saturated market.

Local office Director Franje Ridzije said that the company's offer to legal customers will be favourable, with Windows and Office including free software updates for three years for $500. Ridzije insisted that Microsoft is leaving responsibility for enforcing intellectual property rights to the state and is not putting pressure on the market.

(NewsBase 06.vi.02)