Microsoft to go after `pirates` personally

By Staff Writer for Microsoft SA

Johannesburg, 17 Oct 2002

Microsoft will join Keystone Information Services Group`s two directors - brothers Matthys and Lambertus Hechter - in their personal capacities, following a court order for the business to pay Microsoft R1.1 million in damages for infringing the software company`s copyright.

This arose out of a High Court action against Keystone for hard disk loading Microsoft software onto 347 computers, which the company then sold to the Mpumalanga Department of Education. Hard disk loading is when a company buys one licence of an operating system or application and copies it onto numerous computers.

"Keystone is in liquidation, but there are no assets in the company, which is why we have decided to go after the directors personally," says Mark Reynolds, group licensing compliance manager at Microsoft SA. He says the directors are expected to appear in the Pretoria High Court on Monday.

"It is important to Microsoft that we are able to protect our resellers. Every time a vendor sells unlicensed software by hard disk loading or by counterfeiting, a legitimate reseller loses out.

"Additionally, consumers who end up with pirated software run the risk of being left without support or warranties even if they didn`t know they were buying unlicensed software," says Reynolds.

Another computer reseller, Comrite, is set to appear in the Middelburg Magistrate`s court on 10 December, following a summons for damages amounting to R100 000, after Microsoft alleged that Comrite had been found to be hard disk loading.

"These are two of five cases involving hard disk loading that we are involved with. There is absolutely no way of condoning this practice, which is blatantly fraudulent. We cannot allow computer resellers to disregard copyright laws. Channel integrity is one of our key focuses and we will take action, if need be, against resellers who flaunt these laws.

"Naturally, software piracy, such as hard disk loading, affects our revenue - but it also affects the revenue of the ethical resellers out there - and places end-users, who believe they have purchased legitimate products, in a difficult position."

Reynolds says that since Microsoft began actively pursuing software pirates, the piracy rates have come down. "We do seem to be on the right track, and public awareness is certainly increasing in this regard, but we still have a long way to go before we can truly say we`ve beaten the pirates."