nessie wrote:
>
> http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47_STO47928,00.html
> Microsoft in hot pursuit of software pirates
>
> By ANNA SCOTT, IDG NEWS SERVICE
> (August 02, 2000) In the past eight weeks, Microsoft Corp. has
> ordered 7,500 Web sites and Internet auctions to stop selling
> counterfeit Microsoft software. Another 600 notices were sent out
> Tuesday. The software giant's secret weapon in combating piracy: an
> Internet monitoring tool that, according to the vendor, sniffs out
> Net fraud 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
>
> "[Microsoft has seen an] increasing volume of complaints related to
> fraudulent materials and both the distributing and posting of illegal
> downloads," said Tim Cranton, a corporate attorney with Microsoft's
> antipiracy group. "Customers are getting ripped off, paying good
> money for bad products."
>
> Microsoft is leasing the tool, an intelligent Web crawler, from the
> software's developer, a third-party vendor that Cranton didn't
> identify. Microsoft has been using the tool to detect counterfeit
> versions of its Windows 2000 operating system since November of last
> year, he added.
>
> Since February of this year, the tool has been programmed to search
> for all counterfeit versions of Microsoft products, resulting in the
> discoveries that spurred Tuesday's announcement of both the software
> vendor's campaign to fight fraud on the Net and its subsequent filing
> of several lawsuits in the U.S.
>
> The tool is capable of detecting the illegal distribution of all
> copyrighted material, including books, movies and music, and is able
> to do so in different languages, Microsoft said. The automated online
> scanning tool simulates a search that someone looking for fraudulent
> material would run. The software is capable of searching the content
> of every Web site and each site's links.
>
> "It is a solution for all content creators because it can protect all
> sorts of content online. . . . [Microsoft's] goal is to create an
> honest marketplace where [customers] can get trusted Microsoft
> content online," Cranton said.
>
> So far, Microsoft's campaign has generated 64 criminal raids and
> resulted in 17 civil lawsuits being filed in 15 countries. In the
> U.S., where more than 3,000 Internet auction postings were taken down
> in July, Microsoft recently announced five lawsuits and two
> settlements. One of the lawsuits is against New York-based Copy USA.
> To date, Microsoft has shut down 600 postings on the company's
> auction site. The settlements are related to college students who had
> been selling illegal copies of Microsoft's software through auction
> sites out of Sacramento, Calif., and Chicago.
>
> The Business Software Alliance (BSA) in Washington, a nonprofit trade
> group of which Microsoft is a key member, said it supports the
> software giant's actions. However, the BSA is not using its power of
> attorney to take legal action against fraudulent parties.
>
> "This is Microsoft's own action," said Karine Elsen, the BSA's
> director of marketing.
>
> Many of the raids have been led or supported by the BSA, whose
> involvement is instrumental to Microsoft's success, Cranton said. The
> industry body has been criticized in the past for having an overly
> close relationship with Microsoft.
>
I heard this morning on St.Louis radio a commercial by BSA, saying they were in
town, looking for companies that were using pirated software. They announced an
"amnesty" and then asked how long would it be until some disgruntled worker
tipped them off. A nice way to squeeze someone's balls, eh?
--
´´
Mark McHugh
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
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