Well maybe, but with 25% of U.S. software pirated, there is a lot of reporting to be done …Microsoft Corp. announced that it had filed software piracy lawsuits against three Missouri-based resellers for the alleged distribution of counterfeit and/or infringing Microsoft software. These legal actions aim to protect consumers of Microsoft software from the negative ramifications of acquiring bogus software.
Earlier this month, the software industry’s anti-piracy watchdog group, the Business Software Alliance (BSA), announced a truce that would suspend it from taking legal actions against end users in St. Louis for software piracy. The truce is designed to encourage consumers, including small businesses, to assess and ensure software compliance. This involves ensuring that consumers can have confidence in the suppliers from whom they acquire their software, because consumers rely on an honest distribution channel to deliver legitimate software.
“One of our clients ran across Office Pro in the reseller channel for $80. We knew it couldn’t be genuine product, and confirmed our suspicion that it was likely counterfeit,” said John Huff, president and CEO of J. Norman Consulting Inc., a St. Louis information technology firm. “In addition to putting our customers at risk, software piracy and counterfeiting among resellers gives illegal operators an unfair competitive advantage over companies that obey the law.”
Software piracy continues to have a severe negative impact on state and local economies across the country and around the world. According to a study released in 1999 by International Planning and Research Corp., the average piracy rate in the United States is 25 percent, which means that one in four computers are running pirated software.
Customers or resellers with questions about the legitimacy of software can obtain more information by:
calling the Microsoft anti-piracy hotline at (800) RU-LEGIT (email: piracy@microsoft.com) or the Business Software Alliance (BSA) anti-piracy hotline at (888) NO-PIRACY (email: software@bsa.org).
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