By Simon Quicke

21 October 2008

Microsoft has announced that today is global anti-piracy day with the vendor working a co-ordinated educational and enforcement campaign across 48 countries to try and impact the counterfeit product problems.

The vendor has been actively fighting global piracy but in a country-by-country basis but its latest move should counter some of the criticism that it needs to target not just the UK pirates but those abroad who are providing them with the products.

The channel is taking a major role in the activities planned for the day along with customer education. Some of the countries being targeted include China, Turkey, Italy and Brazil.

In a statement, David Finn, associate general counsel for Worldwide Anti-Piracy and Anti-Counterfeiting at Microsoft, said that it would work with law enforcement agencies, resellers and customers to “stay a step ahead of this illegal industry”.

“We are working to identify international connection points between software pirates and counterfeiters, to help stop them in their tracks and protect consumers and legitimate businesses from this illegal trade,” he added.

One of the most recent high profile international successes was the busting of a Chinese pirate network that was responsible for producing billions of dollars worth of counterfeit software. Microsoft worked with the FBI on that case and is also working with international anti-crime body Interpol.

“There is growing evidence that highly organized, transnational criminal organizations and networks are involved in the counterfeiting of software and other goods. This is a global problem with global sources of supply; this is why we need to work together — the public and the private sectors — to stop this trade,” said John Newton of the intellectual property rights project, financial and high-tech crime subdirectorate, INTERPOL General Secretariat.

Microsoft has been actively pursuing counterfeiters through the courts in the UK and it most recent victory was putting ITAC, which had repeated its illegal activities, out of action last month.