Barron's: What's going right at Microsoft? Many investors think that it's past its prime.

Rosenberg: Investors don't appreciate the growth in Microsoft's earnings coming from the developing world. Ballmer has talked about this. Piracy in the developing world is going away. Part of it has to do with the way the code was written in the new Vista operating system and part of it is that, as countries become more developed, they can't allow software to be pirated and sold on the street.

Interesting perspective, but is it true? Here's James Fallows:

This weekend, on the street in Beijing, my wife and I found a good video store -- they're slightly more discreet than in Shanghai -- and loaded up on every movie I've just named (*), plus a bunch more, at a little under $1.40 each. Extortionate, compared with Shanghai, but the best we could do.

(*) Juno. There Will Be Blood. The Great Debaters. No Country for Old Men. Charlie Wilson's War. American Gangster. Sweeney Todd. Eastern Promises. I'm Not There.

Joe Rosenberg, on Microsoft | Barron's