Microsoft Sues Retailer for Making 94,000 Fake Windows CDs
What would MC Double Def DP say? Apart from, "Don't copy that floppy," of course.
UK retailer Comet is being sued by Microsoft for supposedly making and then selling fake Windows CDs. Redmond said in a release that it had filed a suit against Comet Group PLC for allegedly creating and selling more than 94,000 sets of counterfeit Windows Vista and Windows XP recovery CDs in a factory in Hampshire. The alleged counterfeits were sold to customers who had purchased Windows-loaded PCs and laptops from Comet retail stores across the UK.
"As detailed in the complaint filed today, Comet produced and sold thousands of counterfeit Windows CDs to unsuspecting customers in the United Kingdom," said David Finn, associate general counsel, Worldwide Anti-Piracy and Anti-Counterfeiting at Microsoft. "Comet's actions were unfair to customers. We expect better from retailers of Microsoft products — and our customers deserve better, too."
However, it seems Comet is putting the blame on Microsoft. The retailer said in a press release that customers had been adversely affected by Microsoft's decision to stop offering recovery discs with each new Microsoft-based computer and says it 'firmly believes' that it acted in the best interests of the customer.
"We note that proceedings have been issued by Microsoft Corporation against Comet relating to the creation of recovery discs by Comet on behalf of its customers.
Comet has sought and received legal advice from leading counsel to support its view that the production of recovery discs did not infringe Microsoft’s intellectual property.
Comet firmly believes that it acted in the very best interests of its customers. It believes its customers had been adversely affected by the decision to stop supplying recovery discs with each new Microsoft Operating System based computer.
Accordingly Comet is satisfied that it has a good defence to the claim and will defend its position vigorously."
What's unclear from this particular statement is whether Comet was actually charging customers for the discs or just including them with Windows machines sold at each of its stores (which would still be distribution of unauthorized copies of Microsoft's software). However, in a statement sent to the Verge, the company confirmed that the discs were sold to customers and sent directly to each customer after purchase. The company did not specify how much it charged customers for the discs.
"The discs were sold alongside new PCs. Each set of recovery discs were specific to the customer’s new laptop and were sent after purchase directly to each customer."
We'll keep you posted on any developments.
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The whole Windows OS game is a bit if-y, especially when you are building the PC yourself. I now have original Windows 7 that I bought in shop and since I am reinstalling the OS every two months or so now I have to call them every time to explain that it's just a reboot.. Until each MB gets proper universal tracking number there will be a total mess in Windows OS. Unless you buy an OEM product and don't touch your Windows copy until the hardware gives up.
@ edvinasm if your reinstalling every couple of months to keep your system fresh, then burn a disc image of the build once a quater after updates and you don't have to reactivate.
@ edvinasm if your reinstalling every couple of months to keep your system fresh, then burn a disc image of the build once a quater after updates and you don't have to reactivate.
Tried Norton Ghost, cumbersome as hell.. Any suggestions what to use? Any freeware stuff that can boot from CD/USB and back up to external HDD (note all my stuff is on SSD not HDD)?
ir better yet, install then before anyupdates/any install
clone it and burn to dvd's
then just restore it to pc and it will be activated
I use clonezilla (Find it on sourceforge). It can boot from usb and CD. It uses a basic text menu - no fancy GUI. As long as you don't try anything advanced its easy to use.
.. that said advanced stuff isn't really difficult. And you can sort any problems with a google search.
no edit button... Just noticed you said SSD
Backing up and restoring to SSD is not something i've done. You need to look into sector/partition alignment. When I first checked SSDs out almost no programs respected alignment on SSDs
actually norton ghost program is rubbish
but the boot cd is good, ive installed ghost and blocked it from running at startup
acronis true image, clonezilla and easus todo backup
are all good free tools (you have to do something to get easus for free, its detailed on there site, or it was when i got it from them)
actually norton ghost program is rubbishbut the boot cd is good, ive installed ghost and blocked it from running at startupacronis true image, clonezilla and easus todo backupare all good free tools (you have to do something to get easus for free, its detailed on there site, or it was when i got it from them)
Thanks. I am looking for boot CD, found GParted, people are recommending it. Will try some day
all the programs i mentioned are bootcd
look into them
what you are looking for is called a cold backup which is another name for a backup before windows/any os loads
The simple fact is that Comet sell PCs with an OEM copy of Windows installed which they are able to being an OEM distributor and so are allowed to purchase the Windows product at a heavily reduced rate for the mass market.
This is all done on the premise that the product is not transferable to another system and so the OEM is only allowed to provide a system restore disc (one which restores the system to an out of the box state and predominantly when no CD\DVD backup method is available e.g. a note\ultrabook pc) or a means of creating a system restore disc within the system itsef in the event that the OEM doesn't provide the physical media.
If Comet have basically been writing standard copies, i.e. those from which a user can install a fresh install of Windows then they have broken the OEM licence agreement and are open to a copyright infringement claim. If they also made fake OEM licence documentation and\or labelling they are also clearly breaking copyright law on several levels.
It would not surprise me that a retailer such as Comet would respond with a pathetic statement such as '...that it acted in the best interests of the customer' as that is clearly no defence against the charges.
Doing something 'in the best interests of the customer' has no relationship to saving money which is likely the basic reason Comet took this approach (if in fact they did) so as to save on having to provide technical support for system restores instead letting customers muddle along on their own rather than providing the support, which is after all one of the pillars of the OEM agreement in that support for the product is provided by the OEM not by Microsoft.
Comet probably got caught out by hundreds of Comet customers contacting Microsoft either for support with the install and associated actions or because of activation issues. I can just imaging the Microsoft Support call screeners asking customers "Where did you buy this copy of Windows?" only to be told "It came with my PC." by the customer and once that happened a few hundred times the flag was raised.
If Comet is guilty it was very nieve of them to think they could get away with it.
I worked on the tech support for a while and Microsoft wouldn't allow DELL to give out any copies of windows even though the customer already had a Valid CD Key, we had folks calling in who had damaged or lost the CD given with the computer.
DELL had no problem with giving out a replacement CD but Microsoft put the brakes on it which I thought sucked, say you bought a car and a part of it got broke and you went to the dealer you got it from and they told you there is nothing that can be done as the car maker doesn't supply spare parts.