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Microsoft Piracy Lawsuits!

LOS ANGELES, March 13— The Microsoft Corporation said today that it had been awarded $8.08 million in damages in a software piracy lawsuit it filed against Unitron Inc., a computer manufacturer in Taiwan.

The software giant, based in Redmond, Wash., said it had won the judgment in Federal District Court in Los Angeles against Unitron, a former licensee of Microsoft operating system software.

Microsoft said it was awarded $1.78 million in additional damages from Unitron’s chief executive, Cheng Hsuing Chen, and United States subsidiary, Unitron Computer USA of Industry, Calif

Microsoft unleashes lawsuits, raids in piracy crackdown

By McClatchy-Tribune News Service

SAN FRANCISCO — Microsoft Corp. said Thursday it has unleashed a series of lawsuits and is cooperating in criminal prosecutions worldwide in an effort to stem piracy of its software.

All told, Microsoft said it has launched some 300 “enforcement actions,” which include civil suits and raids in about 70 countries worldwide. The company also is drawing attention to the “forensic labs” in nine cities, designed to detect counterfeit software.

Microsoft’s Windows software dominates the global market for personal computer operating systems, providing a solid anchor for the company’s other offerings, such as the Office suite of word processing, spreadsheet and other tools.

But rampant piracy has periodically taken a significant bite out the company’s quarterly results.

Microsoft said Thursday that the crackdown includes raids by China’s Copyright Administration against 12 companies there charged with counterfeiting software, and the filing of a lawsuit against a local “system builder for hard-disk loading piracy.”

The Redmond, Wash.-based software giant said it also filed four civil legal actions in India, coupled with four “criminal market sweeps.”

Pirated copies of Microsoft’s latest iteration of Windows, Windows 7, can be purchased on the black market in India for as little as $1, according to recent media reports. Windows 7 was released in October, and Microsoft is counting on it to help burnish its image following a relatively poor reception for its predecessor, Windows Vista.

While a relatively small percentage of Microsoft’s sales occur in developing markets such as China and India, the company is looking to them to provide future growth.

Via McClatchy-Tribune News Service.

Microsoft files 26 U.S. piracy lawsuits

By Allison Linn, Associated Press
SEATTLE — Microsoft (MSFT) 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.

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.

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, 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.
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