Microsoft targets auctioneers of pirated software
Thinking of selling counterfeit software? Don’t. Worldwide crackdown by Microsoft with over 50 lawsuits.
The actions include 15 lawsuits in the U.S., 10 in Germany, 10 in the Netherlands, six in France, and five in the United Kingdom, Microsoft said. Additional cases are being filed in Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Korea and Poland, the company said.
“This is a worldwide enforcement against sellers of counterfeit software on online auction sites,” said Matt Lundy, a senior attorney at Microsoft. “We’re finding more and more that auction sites are becoming a popular way for counterfeiters to distribute counterfeit software to consumers.”
The lawsuits are part of Microsoft’s continued crackdown on software piracy, which the company acknowledges cuts into its earnings. According to the Business Software Alliance, about a third of all the software installed on personal computers worldwide in 2005 was pirated, a multibillion-dollar loss for the software industry.
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