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Microsoft Sues Repeat Offenders Over Piracy
David Utter
Staff Writer
2008-06-10
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Sellers of counterfeit software continue to bedevil Microsoft, as the company announced a new series of lawsuits against sellers of pirated versions of Windows.
 | | Microsoft Sues Repeat Offenders Over Piracy |  |
Pre-loading duplicated software onto PCs and selling them at full retail to buyers drew the return of lawsuits from Microsoft for companies it has sued previously. Consumers end up with PCs that will not verify as genuine through Microsoft's online check of the operating system.
Since customers are being charged a hefty premium for unlicensed software, the ripoff hurts them as much as Microsoft. Being the world's biggest tech company does allow for generous funding for the legal department, which disclosed 21 federal lawsuits filed in 14 states over piracy allegations.
A statement from Microsoft said companies cited in eight of the lawsuits have been party before to Microsoft's challenges, ones that the accused resellers settled with the company in the wake of those prior lawsuits.
But if they thought it would be business as usual, they did not reckon on the impact of consumers reporting them over non-genuine software. Microsoft touted its Genuine and How to Tell websites as places where people can find and report fakes.
Case summaries provided by Microsoft about these newest filings show infringement on a broad selection of its software. Windows figured in several, as expected, as did multiple version of the Office productivity suite.
The software industry-friendly Business Software Alliance claimed in May that more than a third of the PCs in the world run pirated software. Even though global piracy dropped by a percentage point from 2006 to 2007, BSA still claimed losses rose to over $8 billion for software companies in 2007.
About the Author:
David Utter is a business and technology writer for SecurityProNews and WebProNews.
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