Microsoft files first authenticity certificate lawsuits

[Khephra]

SEATTLE -- For the first time, Microsoft Corp. is suing on claims of counterfeit and illicit certificates of authenticity, the labels on software and computers that are supposed to show the products are legitimate.

In copyright and trademark infringement lawsuits filed Monday, Microsoft accused eight small and medium computer resellers and software vendors in seven states of distributing unlawful versions of the COA labels.

The cases include claims of attaching counterfeit or illegitimately obtained certificates to computers as well as accusations that the labels were illicitly sold without any associated software.

In a test purchase of more than 2,000 COAs, mostly over the Internet, some were found to be counterfeit and others were legitimate but had been removed from packages or hardware, said Bonnie MacNaughton, a Microsoft lawyer.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/ny-bc-ny--microsoftlabels1130nov30,0,4738421.story?coll=ny-ap-regional-wire

[genieroze]

1. Poor Billy Gates.

[Trillo]

2. More reasons to go open source....

"as well as accusations that the labels were illicitly sold without any associated software."

A few years back I was trying to understand precisely what the COA was. I had always read that if you were in possession of the OEM disk itself, that was all that was necessary to prove legal use. I believe I saw on Microsoft's own site that they sold COA without software.

I never understood this. Either you have an OEM copy of Microsoft's software, or you don't. If you do, why do you need a COA?

Linux is looking better all the time: I can't even understand Microsoft's sales gimmicks!

[TO Kid]

3. No gimmick to it

The COAs were introduced as a security measure when the OEM CDs and labels became laughably easy to reproduce. People who forge them are thieves on the same level as counterfeiters.