by Simon Quicke10 November 2008
One of the many warnings that those fighting anti-piracy
have given is to widen the focus to include online auction sites.
As traditional means of selling and buying counterfeit products
become complemented with online options including auction sites and
peer-to-peer and groups fighting piracy have been forced to extend their
activities.
The latest to report it has fought back is the Business Software
Alliance (BSA), which has terminated 18,000 auctions that were selling 45,000
items of pirated software for a total of £12m.
Neil
MacBride, vice president, anti-piracy and general counsel, BSA, said that
buying online was anonymous and gave some buyers the feeling that intellectual property
theft was a “victimless crime”.
“Whilst
many would not dream of shoplifting a music CD or package of software from a
store, they are willing to go online to seek out copies of what is clearly
illegal software. Ignorance is not an excuse – businesses should be making
basic checks to ensure that what they are buying is authentic,” he said.
In
the past Microsoft has been particularly active taking down auctions that were
selling pirated software and last year issued a number of writs against sellers
on eBay.
