James Delahunty
10 Dec 2005 9:34
Working closely with online auction site eBay, Microsoft has managed to shut down a firm responsible for selling more than £3 million worth of fake Microsoft software. The outfit, Zoobon, first came to Microsoft's attention after receiving complaints from dissatisfied customers about problems they had after purchasing Microsoft software. Microsoft began to investigate the matter, and almost a year later identified the people behind the operation.
Microsoft and the individuals involved reached an out of court settlement, where these individuals have ceased trading and cannot sell Microsoft products in future. They also paid a reportedly huge amount in damages to the software giant. "We take our responsibility seriously to protect consumers and legitimate channel partners from counterfeit software," said Michala Alexander, Microsoft head of anti-piracy. "This was a major counterfeit operation selling goods which were hard to distinguish from the genuine article. By working with eBay, Zoobon has been taken out of business."
This is the latest event in a new war on piracy that Microsoft launched. By adding legitimacy checks to the Windows download sites, Microsoft is able to alert consumers if they are using a counterfeit operating system. With information provided by these users, Microsoft has taken down many software dealers who were providing customers with counterfeit goods.
Source:
The Register