Microsoft Wins over Fight Against Pirated Software in China

Software giant Microsoft has come out victorious in its battle to eradicate pirated software in China since a court in Shanghai ordered an insurance company in the region to recompense a sum of Rmb2.17 Million ($318,000) to the American company for the damages caused to it, as per the news published by FT.com published April 23, 2010.

According to a Shanghai district court in Pudong New Area, Dazhong Insurance, an insurer based in Shanghai which received the support of several Chinese listed and state-owned firms had infringed upon Microsoft's intellectual property. Further, this act was accomplished by making use of counterfeit versions of different products of Microsoft, the court indicated.

The software giant said that for the first time it had indicted a big Chinese organization for committing copyright violation with respect to its software, as per the news published by ComputerWeekly.com on April 23, 2010.

The software company also said that the case has given it the biggest amount of monetary compensation in China for the damages so far.

According to Microsoft, bringing software online is a common practice, and they usually carry malware like viruses. During 2009, when Media Surveillance was conducted on hundreds of Windows downloaded copies, malcode was spotted in 32% of the copies.

During recent years, Chinese authorities have increased their efforts to eradicate the trade of counterfeit software. However, foreign enterprises criticize that the job of gathering clues continues to be theirs and that it's hard for winning tough sentences against the pirates.

According to Yao Xin, China head of a worldwide industry body, Business Software Alliance (BSA), the verdict should also serve as an admonition to those huge organizations, which keep on utilizing pirated software. According to him, using such software resulted in major damage to the company's reputation in addition to legal consequences, according to the news published by FT.com on April 23, 2010.

The Business Software Alliance (BSA) reported that during 2008, software developers lost $6.67 Billion due to piracy in China, which was merely second to the U.S. Nevertheless, software piracy in China fell 10% during 2004-08.

Moreover Microsoft, in 2009, reportedly escalated its efforts to eliminate fake software vendors. Consequently, it settled four out-of-court cases with UK PC resellers found handling counterfeit software.

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» SPAMfighter News - 5/6/2010