Microsoft is offering a lower-priced version of Windows in Hindi to discourage piracy. But Microsoft has artificially hamstrung Windows XP Starter Edition in some funny ways:

… display resolution is capped at a maximum of 800 by 600 pixels… users can run only three programs or have three windows opened at once, a limitation that research company Gartner believes could frustrate users and drive them to buy bootleg copies of Windows XP instead.

Muslims are demanding four simultaneous windows, while Hindus are happy with just one. Tamils are protesting Hindi hegemony, and the BJP is angry over Windows-with-a-tiny-dikki and is pushing for a nuclear-powered version.

In all seriousness, differential pricing is as big an issue in software as it is with drug reimportation. Customers hate it, yet countries with lower average incomes can’t afford first-world prices. And high-value products that are easy to pirate are especially trapped in dilemma. To their advantage, software companies can create market-specific versions in ways that pharma companies morally cannot.