Kitz Forum

Announcements => News Articles => Topic started by: AdrianH on January 04, 2012, 12:53:12 PM

Title: Microsoft sues Comet over Windows 'counterfeits'
Post by: AdrianH on January 04, 2012, 12:53:12 PM
Naughty Naughty? (http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/intellectual-property/2012/01/04/microsoft-sues-comet-over-windows-counterfeits-40094735/)


Quote
Microsoft is suing the UK electrical retailer Comet for allegedly creating and selling more than 94,000 counterfeit Windows recovery CDs.

The software giant took its case to the UK High Court on Wednesday, claiming Comet had made money from sales of sets of knock-off Windows Vista and Windows XP recovery disks.

"As detailed in the complaint filed today, Comet produced and sold thousands of counterfeit Windows CDs to unsuspecting customers in the United Kingdom," Microsoft associate general counsel David Finn said in a statement.

Finn described the alleged counterfeiting as "unfair" to Comet's customers and said Microsoft expected better from its retailers......... (more)
Title: Re: Microsoft sues Comet over Windows 'counterfeits'
Post by: roseway on January 04, 2012, 01:03:09 PM
It will be interesting to see how this pans out. I find it a bit hard to believe that such a high profile company as Comet would deliberately do something to obviously traceable... ???
Title: Re: Microsoft sues Comet over Windows 'counterfeits'
Post by: kitz on January 04, 2012, 01:36:04 PM
I wonder if theres a bit more to this than meets the eye.  Surely the recovery cd is only of use to someone who already has already purchased a licenced copy of windows.

The first thing Im curious about is how much Comet charged for the recovery CD. 
Dont several other PC and laptop suppliers also charge extra for a recovery CD? - I certainly wish more suppliers would ship a copy of the recovery cd with the PC or laptop rather than use recovery partitions.
Title: Re: Microsoft sues Comet over Windows 'counterfeits'
Post by: HPsauce on January 04, 2012, 01:44:39 PM
I wonder if theres a bit more to this than meets the eye. 
Undoubtedly.  :-X

I used to be quite an expert on Microsoft licensing, though mainly in the corporate world, and they quite likely charge "manufacturers" different fees for OEM copies depending on how they're shipped/installed.

e.g. a preinstalled copy on a hard disk (with no recovery media) could well be cheaper than one also shipped with the media.

I have noticed that many recent systems not only come preinstalled but also have no means to create recovery media; the only option you have is the extremely tedious one of taking a full system backup.  >:D
No doubt those copies are even cheaper.  :lol:
Title: Re: Microsoft sues Comet over Windows 'counterfeits'
Post by: BritBrat on January 04, 2012, 06:46:10 PM
I certainly wish more suppliers would ship a copy of the recovery cd with the PC or laptop rather than use recovery partitions.

Have you ever  contacted them to ask for one?

I have got one every time I have asked and even got XP downgrade discs for free.