James Delahunty
13 Aug 2009 13:17
Microsoft has had a long-running campaign against businesses that use and/or sell pirated copies of its software, whether its actually sold as a counterfeit product on a disc, or a pre-installed on a HDD by a PC dealer. In the UK, it has taken action against more than 100 high street retailers in just the last 18 months or so.
One of the companies that it caught, and is now working with, is PC Support in Worcester. Christine Throup of the company, told The Register, "We recognize that we weren’t installing Microsoft software correctly, and that’s something we take seriously. We’ll be working with Microsoft over the next few weeks to make sure what we do falls within their software rules from now on."
Ten other companies also have reached a settlement with Microsoft having been caught in the act (list at source). Microsoft reminds consumers that PCs with pre-loaded Windows installations should also come with the appropriate documents to prove that it is genuine software.
The company provides a discounted replacement service for consumers who unknowingly bought unlicensed copies of Microsoft's operating systems.