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Ebay and Microsoft Fight Software Piracy
illeism writes "E-commerce News is reporting that Microsoft is going after Ebay sellers offering pirated copies of Microsoft software. From the article 'The suits do not name eBay as a defendant and Microsoft indicated that it has received extensive cooperation from the auction giant in the past as it tried to ferret out piracy. In fact, Microsoft said it asked eBay to remove some 50,000 suspicious auctions during 2005 alone ... The suits are mainly against individuals and cover alleged counterfeit sales of several Microsoft programs, including Windows and Office XP and older versions, such as Office 2000.'" More interestingly, the article flatly states that MS has no hope of ending piracy. The suits are apparently meant to 'protect consumers'.
As a programmer, I understand where Mico$oft is coming from. I wouldn't want someone stealing my code and making a profit off of it by stealing my programs. My Question is, why does it seem that the Tri-State COmputer Show here in NY always seems to have pirated software/OEM software (without the hardware piece) for sale and they never get in trouble? Theres something fishy there... But not to digress, I think that Microsoft is doing a good thing by attempting to stop piracy.
-- Josh
"Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me!" - Pete Conrad
You can hate Microsoft all you want- But independent of that, I think it is reasonable that a company would go after people selling counterfeit products in an open forum. Look at what Tiffany and Co. is doing to Ebay.
And All I Ask is a Tall Ship And a Star to Steer Her By
I agree with most of your arguments, but that's a poor comparison. The SSN is your Tax Identification Number (and if you're a business opening a bank account, they require your company's TIN). Interest on bank accounts has to be reported to the IRS, and banks need your SSN to do it. They're one of the few places (along with any potential employer) that has a legitimate reason to ask for your SSN.
Better examples of places that have no good reason to ask for it are your cell phone provider, electric company, cable company, etc. Yes, in some states, they can't require it and can force you to pay a deposit instead, but other states have no such protection. Even some supermarkets are asking for it for their "rewards" or "coupon" keychain tags.
There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
True. But I have purchased DVDs and software on ebay, some are blatently copies but some sell as the real deal only to be fake - these are what piss me off.
I buy used DVDs because I don't care if I'm the first person to see it or not and I can get a title for 33% of retail this way but about every third DVD I get turns out to be a pirated copy. To be fair some of these are really high quality BUT some are filmed at the multiplex in glorious shakeycam (TM) with added foreign subtitles (non removable) thrown in at no extra cost.
I want to pay a "fair" price. A fair price for used or OEM software is not the same as a CDR with a photocopied licence code.
I've had my software sold on eBay pulled by M$. The claim was that the software was pirated. The ad stated that the software was genuine; CD was real w/ key, box and license. But I wasn't sure that it had all of the paperwork. M$ then claimed that this was a "Pirated" copy. I got in contact with the person at M$, and after a few words, offered to bring it over. He declined. I asked how I could tell if I had all of the advertising papers, and he said that was my responsibility. M$ has an interesting definition of what is "Pirated".
A lot of these 50,000 'suspicious' copies are probably legitimate, you just can't sell it on Ebay because that would price the software at its true market value. First-sale doctrine, we hardly knew ye.