Microsoft said on Tuesday it had started 55 legal actions around
the world against dealers it accuses of selling counterfeit
software online, its largest enforcement effort to date.
"Today's announcement marks ... the first time the company has
focused its efforts worldwide to bring legal action against
online dealers," the U.S.-based software company said in a
statement.
The legal actions include 15 in the United States, 10 in
Germany, 10 in the Netherlands, five in France and five in
Britain, as well as proceedings in Argentina, Australia, Belgium,
Korea, Mexico and Poland.
The cases are against sellers who the company says have misused
their eBay or other online auction site accounts to sell
counterfeit software. Microsoft said it had sent warnings for
infringing behavior to many of the defendants before taking the
legal action.
Microsoft analyzed counterfeit Windows XP programs in June this
year and said it found that 34 percent of the disks could not be
installed on a computer, and another 43 percent contained
additional programs, or binary code, that are not part of the
operating system.