09,16,04,counterfeit,CaliforniaWire
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A Gardena man is among 11 people charged in a federal investigation that led to the seizure of $87 million in counterfeit computer software, prosecutors announced Thursday.
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By Jeff Hood, The Record, Stockton, Calif.  Sep.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft has published findings of research around counterfeit versions of Windows XP that the company said shows the software could be harmful to consumers that purchase them. On Tuesday, the company filed 20 more lawsuits against companies it says are engaged in illegal software sales. It is part of an ongoing effort to prevent pirated copies of Windows from making the rounds. Microsoft studied 348 counterfeit Windows XP software disks, finding that 34 percent of the software copies could not be installed on a computer, and 43 percent had additional code that was not part of a genuine copy of Windows, the company said. According to Mary Jo Schrade, a Microsoft senior attorney, some of the code on the disks that was not part of Windows posed problems such as: installing malware in addition to installing Windows without the userâs knowledge; installing tampered or incomplete versions of Windows, rendering the OS unstable; and bypassing input of the administrator password. To obtain the copies of software used in the study, Microsoft uses investigators to buy software from vendors they suspect are selling counterfeit versions of Windows. The software used in the study was purchased in the U.S. as well as other countries in North America, South America and Asia. Schrade acknowledged that Microsoft's interest in identifying people who sell counterfeit Windows software and stopping them is not purely altruistic, since the company stands to gain financially from sales of genuine copies of Windows. "We put the research and development money behind the products and if someone copies and sells them, we're not getting paid for our research and development, thoughts and ideas," she said. However, Microsoft also is concerned about protecting consumers from any harm that purchasing nonlicensed and counterfeit versions of Windows could bring them, either through vulnerabilities or from spending money on software that does not work, she said. Microsoft filed the new lawsuits against companies in nine states -- Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon and Texas. Since July, when it began filing suits against software counterfeiters in earnest, Microsoft has filed 46 cases against companies and individuals it claims are selling pirated or counterfeit copies of Microsoft software. All of the cases are still pending, Schrade said. Over the next nine months Microsoft plans to double its investment in efforts to detect and prevent sales of counterfeit software, she said. The company plans to file at least 150 cases against alleged counterfeiters by the end of the company's fiscal year in June. Schrade declined to disclose how much money Microsoft has put into locating people who are selling counterfeit versions of Windows, saying only it is in the millions of dollars so far.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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Pete Tong on New Year's eve A mis-firing anti-virus update from CA issued on Monday wrongly identified legitimate JavaScript files as a virus.â¦
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State officials warned California residents Wednesday to take preventative steps against ID theft after an unknown hacker gained access to a database at the University of California, Berkeley.
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An Australian pleads guilty to fraud after posing as a dispossessed Nigerian to cheat people of their money. Also: eBay penalizes its own con men & hellip;. Microsoft's legal woes not quite over & hellip;. and more.
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way. Nobody&#39;s exactly sure why or how the FBI got warrants to take Indymedia&#39;s HDs, but their
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By John Simerman, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.  Sep.
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PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 21  /PRNewswire/ -- Counterfeiting is a problem that seems to be prevalent all over the world. Cheap alternatives for expensive products are bound to sell -- but at what cost? To answer the question simply, it is at the loss of the original products.
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By George Kelly, Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, Calif.  Sep.
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To: TECHNOLOGY EDITORS  Contact: Karen Norphon, +1-703-683-5004 x121, for Hands Off the Internet   WASHINGTON, June 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Gov.
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Syndicate controlled '90 per cent' of all fakes A counterfeiting operation that Microsoft claims was responsible for 90 per cent of faked Microsoft software has been sent up the river in Taiwan.â¦
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Prosecutors have charged 11 people in California, Texas and Washington state with conspiring to distribute more than &#36;30 million of counterfeit computer software and products.
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Also: Vigilante hackers target the wrong guy. See what people are saying on News.com Extra.
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New technology and a faceless distribution network over the Internet are contributing to a rising number of counterfeit tickets to sports events and concerts.
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Plus: Was Einstein a plagiarist? [News.com Extra]
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By Ben Goldby; James Green  Internet shoppers in the West Midlands have been warned to be on their guard after an investigation into eBay found the popular auction site is a prime target for counterfeiters.