Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft To Court: Make Comcast Give Us Windows-Pirating Subscriber's Info (networkworld.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft is using the IP address 'voluntarily' collected during its software activation process to sue a Comcast subscriber for pirating thousands of copies of Windows and Office. The Redmond giant wants the court to issue a subpoena which will force Comcast to hand over the pirating subscriber's info. If the infringing IP address belongs to another ISP which obtained it via Comcast, then Microsoft wants that ISP's info and the right to subpoena it as well. "Defendants activated and attempted to activate at least several thousand copies of Microsoft software, much of which was pirated and unlicensed," Microsoft's legal team wrote. The product keys "known to have been stolen" from Microsoft's supply chain were used to activate Windows 8, Windows 7, Office 2010, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2008. The product keys, Microsoft said, were used "more times than is authorized by the applicable software license," used by "someone other than the authorized licensee," or were "activated outside the region for which they were intended." Whether or not the IP traces back to a Comcast subscriber or was assigned by Comcast to a different ISP, as the The Register pointed out, "It would be a significant gaffe on behalf of the alleged pirates if the IP address data pointed to their real identifies."
Saved by the NAT!!!
I see what you're saying, but we're talking about mass theft here. Not some little guy with a few illegitimate installations. Microsoft is a software business, you can't expect to pirate their wares and expect them to be okay with it.
I agree...a little low-level piracy is one thing but something on this scale is hard to turn a blind eye towards. If this doesn't warrant some sort of response then I don't know what would.
I'm certainly no fan of Microsoft to say the least, but I don't see this as some egregious or unreasonable behavior by them.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
What I don't understand is why Microsoft let it activate thousands of times. I mean, isn't this exactly the kind of thing that the activation is supposed to prevent? If the keys were activated too often and/or used outside their issued area, shouldn't the activation have failed? If so, why bother prosecuting since it won't be usable and no harm has been done? If the activation didn't fail, and the keys really were stolen, how do they know and if they know, why didn't they just blacklist them?
When they find out that Comcast static IP address(Houston, Tx) is a VPN node setup by some hacker, and the owner had no idea.
Or, it could be worse, and find out it's a Comcast public wifi IP addr that's been activating all those licenses.
.
The obvious solution is to invalidate the authentication keys so no longer work. It's simple, can be performed digitally, and all those stolen keys are instantly useless. The rightful owner can prove themselves and new keys issued. Why wait for hundreds of thousands of bogus authorizations with the same keys then cry about it - unless you have an agenda.
There must be some business operation happening. They don't say over what time period this has been happening, but given the number I'd say it's been happening for quite a while.
My guess is it's some computer repair shop doing reinstalls of broken/virus riddled machines using a single (non-OEM) key. I doubt a single guy would reach thousands of machines, even over 5 years... Maybe a mom and pop shop. I think it would be hilarious if it tied back to a Best Buy or Microsoft Store.
I disagree. These companies have abused copyright too much and for too long, and because of that, I don't think they should have any copyright protection at all.