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MS Wants Laws To Block Products Made By Software Pirates

Posted by Soulskill on from the grasping-at-imported-straws dept.

kaptink writes with this quote from Groklaw: "Microsoft seems to be trying to get its own personal unfair competition laws passed state by state, so it can sue US companies who get parts from overseas companies who used pirated Microsoft software anywhere in their business. The laws allow Microsoft to block the US company from selling the finished product in the state and compel them to pay damages for what the overseas supplier did. So if a company overseas uses a pirated version of Excel, let's say, keeping track of how many parts it has shipped or whatever, and then sends some parts to General Motors or any large company to incorporate into the finished product, Microsoft can sue not the overseas supplier but General Motors, for unfair competition. So can the state's Attorney General. I kid you not. For piracy that was done by someone else, overseas. The product could be T shirts. It doesn't matter what it is, so long as it's manufactured with contributions from an overseas supplier, like in China, who didn't pay Microsoft for software that it uses somewhere in the business. It's the US company that has to pay damages, not the overseas supplier."

4 of 617 comments (clear)

  1. More complicated than a carbon tax. by wisty · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If Microsoft China employs engineers who wear pirated Nike t-shirts, can Nike sue Microsoft?

  2. Good thing they don't sell Windows XP anymore by Gubbe · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm sure Sound Forge authors are just waiting for this law to pass.
    Seeing as under this law they could sue Microsoft for big bucks!

  3. Re:"An offer you cannot refuse" gamut by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 5, Interesting

    IANAL, but as I see it basically Microsoft could sue ANYONE. I doubt that there is any business in the United States that doesn't have some part somewhere that was made by a Chinese company that didn't pirate something Microsoft along the way. If the burden is on the company to prove they didn't do anything wrong then you've got a great formula for putting small businesses into bankruptcy.

    We don't only have a class war in the U.S., we have a war between big and small businesses.

  4. Re:"An offer you cannot refuse" gamut by mlts · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Nail, head hit.

    This proposed law would instantly make Microsoft billions. If done right, companies would have to prove their supplies didn't use pirated products in order to not get sued.

    It also will force companies to buy Microsoft products for CYA reasons. This happened with Sarbanes-Oxley and the fact that operating systems on up had to have some sort of compliance (FIPS, Common Criteria) in order for IT departments to show due diligence. This caused wholesale migrations to Windows just for this reasons.

    I can see companies not just moving to MS, but demanding their supplies be Microsoft based, so they can show that they are compliant.

    Big win for MS, big win for businesses with lots of lawyers, small businesses now are easily destroyed should they show some innovation that can't be bought up easily.

    Plus, if one of the copyright lawsuits for an insane amount does go through, a company can easily owe Microsoft trillions, especially with the precedents seen with LimeWire and other cases.