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SEATTLE (AP) -- Microsoft Corp. has filed 26 lawsuits accusing U.S. companies of selling pirated software, the latest move in its ramped-up efforts to boost sales by cracking down on illegal copies.
Quote:
The world's largest software maker filed the lawsuits Friday in federal courts in Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, Colorado, South Carolina, New York and New Jersey. The lawsuits accuse the companies of selling illegal copies of its Windows operating system and Office business software.
The lawsuits are the latest in Microsoft's increasingly aggressive steps to curb piracy of its two flagship products - and cash cows - Windows and Office. The company has begun widespread distribution of a program, called Windows Genuine Advantage, that checks whether users are running legitimate copies of Windows. And it scored a coup earlier this year when China agreed to crack down on piracy.
Redmond-based Microsoft still rakes in billions of dollars in profits from Windows, but the market is growing more saturated. That's left the company more eager to curb illegal copies, in the hopes those users will buy legitimate versions.
"We're worried about it because it does seriously affect our business, in the sense of people not paying for the research and development but reaping the benefits," said Mary Jo Schrade, a Microsoft senior attorney.
Schrade said the intent of the lawsuits isn't necessarily to recoup costs but instead to raise awareness and prevent further piracy.
Quote:
Microsoft has long raised concerns about countries such as China, Russia and India, where piracy is thought to be rampant, but it has more recently increased its monitoring in the United States as well. Schrade said that although the piracy rate is thought to be lower here than elsewhere, the sheer number of computers running Windows still makes it a big company concern.
Forrester Research analyst Ted Schadler said the company also may feel that it must crack down in the U.S. to boost its international efforts. He said the company may be thinking, "If we don't mind our store at home, how can we ask the Indian government or the Chinese government to mind their stores?"
The 26 cases filed Friday were aimed at companies that sell Microsoft products to businesses and consumers.
In each of the cases, Schrade said Microsoft first sent a warning letter to companies it believed were selling pirated software. If the company continued the practice, Schrade said Microsoft filed a lawsuit.
But Chu Son, a co-partner in Denver-based Microcomp Solutions Inc., said he never received a warning letter before a lawsuit was filed accusing him of selling pirated Office copies.
Son, who settled 2001 charges over Windows sales, said his company mainly repairs computers and rarely sells Office. He believes the allegedly pirated copy came from a batch of 10 or 15 licenses he purchased on eBay, which he believed were legitimate.
"I'm more angry than anything else that these guys, just because they're big and stuff, you know, they're just throwing their muscle around," he said.
Justin Harrison, whose company Sales International LLC was among those sued, also was indicted by a federal grand jury. The Oxford, Ga. resident is accused of selling certificates of authenticity that, the prosecutor says, were meant to vouch for software that was actually illegitimate.
Harrison's lawyer, Steve Sadow, said he hadn't seen the Microsoft lawsuit. But, responding to the federal charges, he said that his client was selling legitimate copies of Microsoft software obtained from legitimate sources.
Please try to summarise and quote when you get some news from other sources Its efforts to boost sales by cracking down on illegal copies wont get far with just 26 lawsuits in my opinion. How may people pay for Adobe Creative Suite, or even Microsoft Office...
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Quote:
..were aimed at companies that sell Microsoft products to businesses and consumers.
Well many people will be downloading the software too, and it is harder to prosecute those
Also Recent updates to the software giant's technology for detecting authorized copies of its Windows operating system have some critics crying foul and have become the focus of at least two lawsuits.
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The class-action lawsuits, one filed on June 26 in the Western District of Washington and the second filed on Friday, claim that Microsoft misled consumers regarding the functionality of its antipiracy updates, known as Windows Genuine Advantage. And last week, the blogosphere rumbled with rumors that Microsoft planned to implement a "kill switch" to shut down any unlicensed copies of Windows.
www.securityfocus.com
I bet many third world companies use pirated windows, many still use WIndows 98 which is another topic on here (ending support).
Then again, Microsoft having a few lawsuits once in a while is nothing new when it comes to piracy, they probably get them all together at once, they are all released in Press Releases anyway...
In 1999....
Quote:
REDMOND, Wash., April 26, 1999 — Microsoft Corp. officials today announced that the company has filed lawsuits against 10 resellers in Ohio for allegedly distributing counterfeit software. The lawsuits are intended to protect the region's legitimate distributors and customers from the negative effects of software piracy and to lessen the impact of software piracy on Ohio's economy, which has already lost more than $440 million in combined wages, tax revenues and retail sales and more than 6,000 jobs as a result of piracy.
A search on the Microsoftsite reveals...
http://search.microsoft.com/results.aspx?mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&q=Piracy+Lawsuits
Microsoft Takes Legal Action to Thwart Software Piracy in Phoenix ...
Microsoft Intensifies Efforts to Crack Down On Counterfeit Software in ...
Microsoft Files Lawsuits to Protect Consumers and Software Resellers ...
Microsoft Takes Legal Action to Curb Software Piracy in New York City ...
Microsoft Launches Worldwide Campaign to Crack Down on Internet Fraud ...
Microsoft Files Lawsuits, Helps Protect Consumers and Honest Resellers ...
Microsoft Takes Legal Actions to Thwart Software Piracy And Protect ...
Piracy News - Microsoft Launches Worldwide Campaign to Crack Down on ...
Microsoft Files Lawsuits in Seven States as Part of Ongoing Program to ...
Microsoft Battles Consumer Fraud on the Internet: Microsoft has ...
Taking Action: Microsoft Brings Lawsuits Against Spammers: Q&A ...
To Help Protect Resellers and Customers, Microsoft Takes Action ...
Intensifying, Filing, Taking Action, Cracking Down, Campaigns, Enforcement, Battling... nothing new as there are press releases from 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, and now 2006
Excuse me I just thought it would be good enough just to post a whole article. ?? Ok I won't do it anymore i just try to bring stuff that might be interesting and fits to the community we have here.
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