Microsoft Sues 20 Resellers for Piracy, Sees What's On Counterfeit CDs

Published: September 20, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Microsoft stepped up its software piracy imitative this week when it filed 20 lawsuits against resellers and other businesses, whom the software giant is accusing of selling counterfeit versions of its software. Microsoft also announced the results of a forensic analysis that looked into the impacts that counterfeit software has on users of Windows XP.

Civil lawsuits were filed against 20 companies in nine states, including Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, and Texas. Microsoft says the lawsuits target resellers that allegedly sold counterfeit software, as well as the companies that participated in "hard-disk loading," or the installation of unlicensed software on computers.

The company also announced the results of a June forensics analysis that took an in-depth look at the bits and bytes found on CDs that contain counterfeit Microsoft software. Microsoft studied 348 disks and found that 34 percent of them could not successfully load the programs they contained, and that 43 percent of them had additional programs or binary code that wouldn't be found on genuine Windows software from Microsoft.

In its announcement, Microsoft didn't elaborate on the types of programs it found (one would think Microsoft would scream at the top of its lungs if it found malware on them). However, Microsoft maintains that the additional code on these discs do pose risks, and could lead to denial-of-service attacks, bypass of password protection, and application memory corruption.

"As this research highlights, consumers and businesses need to make informed choices when purchasing software or risk the possible consequences of using counterfeit software," says Microsoft senior attorney Mary Jo Schrad.