Report: Microsoft aided $900 million piracy bust

In an apparent effort to scare off would-be pirates, Microsoft is trumpeting its role in bringing down an international operation that amassed an estimated $900 million through pirated and counterfeit copies of its software.

Now that the last criminal sentences have been handed down in Taiwan, Redmond is going public about sleuthing by members of its 80-person worldwide antipiracy team, which it says helped to fuel investigations in 22 countries, the Associated Press reports.

It's hardly a secret that over the years, Microsoft has been quite proactive in its antipiracy efforts, filing scores of lawsuits against resellers accused of profiting off phony goods.

But the company's antipiracy involvement apparently picked up in earnest after a 2001 Los Angeles bust, in which U.S. Customs officers nabbed a container filled with $100 million in fake software, including 31,000 copies of Windows, the AP reported.

The AP story also offers a glimpse into apparent detective work on the part of Microsoft employees, who, for instance, sought leads by doing "test buys" to see if merchants were selling phony disks. And it appears they also sought forensics experts to scrutinize holograms and microscopic printed codes printed onto software packaging materials for authenticity.

All of that helped to lead to high-profile raids in Taiwan last year, which netted some $226 million in pirated software, as well as additional busts and dozens of arrests in the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, Canada, Germany, Singapore, Australia, Paraguay, and Poland.

Still, the company fully recognizes its piracy problems aren't over yet, the AP notes: After a slight dip in counterfeits after the Taiwan raids, high-quality bogus copies of Windows Vista and other software continue to surface. (Microsoft has, however, claimed recently that piracy rates for Vista are half that of XP, thanks in part to tougher anticounterfeiting measures.)

[Lee in San Diego]

I am no MicroSoft fanboy, but

I am no MicroSoft fanboy, but every time I get software spam I
forward it on to the big publishers, MicroSoft, Adobe, et al.
MicroSoft is the only one to respond with a thank you note.

When I say software spam I mean the stuff you can download prices
too good to be true. Probably full of malware anyway

[SJ2571]

Malware not the norm

"Probably full of malware anyway". In my test experience, I've never found this to be true, leading me to conclude it's just an anti-scare tactic to prevent the uninformed from even thinking about piracy. Every crack or full-version release I've tested has been 100% clean of viruses, malware, spyware, etc. Reason? The groups responsible want a good reputation with both their peers and pirates. They're a brand, and good brands look after their (illegal) products.

[Porthbautical Research]

Last line was hilarious.

"Microsoft has, however, claimed recently that piracy rates for Vista are half that of XP, thanks in part to tougher anticounterfeiting measures."

Or it could be just supply and demand, I'm no MS fanboy myself but I do use their software to a large extent. Personally if I had the choice between XP SP3 and Vista SP1 ... I'm taking XP.

[imacpwr]

Re: Last line was hilarious

[i]"Microsoft has, however, claimed recently that piracy rates for
Vista are half that of XP, thanks in part to tougher
anticounterfeiting measures."[/i]

And I thought it was because of interest (sales) in Vista was half
that of XP.

;)

[Penguinisto]

Reach up backside, pull out $$number...

c'mon... $900m?

Please.

I suspect they were counting full box retail price and they made one hell of a high estimate on the number of copies.

For instance, 31,000 copies of "Windows" comes in at $3.06 million (assuming base price of $99 apiece). Even if they were all fake "Vista Ultimate", you only get $15 million out of the deal (@ retail price of $499 each).

So did the rest of the container hold copies of 3D Studio Max and Maya exclusively (avg. @ $4k each)?

Cripes, man... little wonder they don't list actual numbers and prices.

/P

[imacpwr]

Re: Reach up backside..

[i]c'mon... $900m? [/i]

Apparently M$ has a very big [i]backside.. [/i] ;)

[pmchefalo]

So Are You Matt Asay?

He (Matt Asay) linked to this asinine comment. The counterfeit software's value was reported by AP, not Microsoft; 31,000 copies of Windows was "among" the software in the story, which probably also included such high ticket items as AutoCAD and the high-end Adobe products, if my spam is any judge. The latter take a much lower profile than Microsoft since their high-margin, low support products are so proftable. We also see Vista Enterprise and the higher end Office products (such as Office Enterprise) on the spams. You can't buy those retail, so what are they worth?

[AHassan5]

I'm not impressed...

(I'm not a genius in computers), but I'm sure I can come up with a better way to protect software from piracy.

They way they are tackling piracy is just wrong. The bust did not actually gain them $900m - what about the legal costs???

The day they actually stop software piracy is the day I will see it as a news.