Posted on Friday, December 14 2007 @ 9:10 CET by Thomas De Maesschalck
Microsoft announced it has filed 52 lawsuits against sellers of counterfeit software in the US, UK, the Netherlands, China and other countries.
Microsoft noted that in 15 of the 52 cases, the software involved could allegedly be traced to a massive commercial counterfeit syndicate that Chinese authorities and the FBI broke up this summer. Most of the alleged illicit sales were conducted through e-commerce sites.
Counterfeit copies of their digital goods cost members of the worldwide software industry an estimated $40 billion annually, according to Microsoft. The tech titan also cited a study conducted by the Business Software Alliance and market researcher IDC that put the global PC software piracy rate at 35 percent last year.
Source: CNET
