Microsoft fights online auction pirates

MICROSOFT HAS been forced to take legal action in 63 different cases due to people selling off counterfeit software on auction sites.

These cases target sellers in 12 different nations including the UK, US, Germany and France.

Most of the counterfeit software is fake "Blue Edition" versions of Windows XP, because let's face it, no ones going to want Vista.

The reason this software is becoming more popular on the auction sites at the moment is due to it coming to the end of its commercial sales cycle - Windows XP was stopped from being installed on PCs last June to make way for Vista.

Despite Microsoft saying that Vista sales are strong, they clearly aren't if businesses favour XP to the extent that they'll buy fake versions.

David Finn, Microsoft's general counsel on worldwide anti-piracy and anti-counterfeiting, said, "These dealers are peddling bogus products that can put customers and their personal information at serious risk," he said.

Microsoft has done research into the quality of this counterfeit software - it claims that 34 percent didn't install and 43 percent contained tampered code which could potentially expose users to online attacks.

"Consumers should be aware that the so-called 'Blue Edition' software is nothing more than low-quality counterfeit software burned onto a CD," said Mr Finn - as most of the software was successfully peddled due to a false ad campaign stating that this was simply a different edition.

In pursuing the auction owners Microsoft has found that the counterfeit case is now global - it might have a tough job on its hands to stop it. µ