Microsoft sue pirates

Microsft have issued a whopping 63 seperate claims against people selling counterfeit software on auction sites (think eBay). The BBC reports that the legal action targets sellers from a total of 12 nations (including all the big boys). The majority of the defendants have been selling fake "Blue" versions of Microsofts XP operating system, it should though be noted that XP has been replaced by Vista (equally nasty to use in IP Freely's humble opinion) although this hasn't been received particularly well by the business world.

Microsoft claim:

"These dealers are peddling bogus products that can put customers and their personal information at serious risk,"

and that:

"Consumers should be aware that the so-called 'Blue Edition' software is nothing more than low-quality counterfeit software burned onto a CD,"

IP Freely says: 1) The people that are ripping off Microsoft are stupid (seriously Bill doesn't like this malarky and willl come after you) and 2) Microsoft only care because Vista has bombed, if it has been a success then this would have never come to light.

On a serious note, with the wave of counterfeit software cases kicking around at the moment people should really be careful with what they download and what they buy.