[ insider_reports_insider ]
Microsoft Goes After Online Seller Pirates
John Stith
Staff Writer
2006-03-15
 Insider Reports RSS Feed
The wizards in Redmond launched an attack against Internet pirates selling their wares on online auction sites like eBay. The attack takes the form of eight lawsuits against sellers moving counterfeit Microsoft product, utilizing eBay auction.
 | | Microsoft Goes After Online Seller Pirates |  |
"Online auction sites are an excellent way for people from around the world to buy and sell goods," said Matt Lundy, attorney at Microsoft. "We strongly believe in the convenience and global reach of the virtual marketplace. Unfortunately, a number of online sellers are undermining trust in the system by using the Internet to hawk illegal products to unsuspecting consumers.
"Microsoft is committed to protecting our customers and technology partners from unscrupulous sellers through customer education and enforcement in appropriate cases. By filing these lawsuits, we hope that auction purchasers will understand that software offers are not always what they appear to be."
The eight defendants are located in Arizona, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York and Washington.
Microsoft routinely monitors auction sites to identify counterfeit software offerings to protect consumers from buying illegal software. Microsoft asks auction sites such as eBay to shut down offerings of counterfeit software. In 2005, the company requested takedowns of almost 50,000 auctions sites offering pirated software.
Michael Schwab, vice president of purchasing for D&H, a wholesale distributor of computer and peripheral products, said he has seen firsthand how legitimate resellers are harmed by illegal online auction sales. He applauded Microsoft's legal actions supporting fair competition in the virtual marketplace.
"Honest resellers are losing business because of illegal sales on online auction sites," Schwab said. "Customers are eager to find the best deal, which often happens to be associated with an inferior, illegal product. This sets the price standard and makes it impossible for those of us operating within the law to compete."
"We are committed to leveling the playing field for our partners," said John Ball, general manager for the U.S. System Builders Partner Group at Microsoft, which works with businesses that manufacture computers. "The lawsuits announced today allege these sellers have willfully violated the law. We hope these legal actions send a strong message to people thinking of selling counterfeit software on online auction sites that it is not worth the risk."
According to the Business Software Alliance, 21 percent of all software in the United States is pirated. When consumers unintentionally purchase counterfeit or pirated software, they are not entitled to receive the benefits offered to genuine software users.
These important benefits include technical support and free product updates and software offerings through the WGA program. In addition, customers using illegal software may unwittingly introduce viruses, malicious code or spyware into their computers and put their personal and business security and information at risk.
Software piracy continues to be a major problem for proprietary software. While China is a strong player in the piracy industry, the bulk of the business is still in the United States. Also, auction houses like eBay must work harder to resolve these issues as well because this isn't he first time counterfeiter have shown up on their site. One might also consider looking toward the federal government for some relief on this. The government should examine their policies for software patents. It will make this problem much less of an issue.
Tag: Microsoft
Get all the updates - click this link: 
Add to | DiggThis| Yahoo My Web
About the Author:
John is a staff writer for SecurityProNews covering cyber security.
More insider_reports_insider Articles
Insider Reports RSS Feed
|
|
iEntry 10th Anniversary
RSS
Archive
