An interesting item in today's Akron Beacon Journal:
Headline: "Microsoft sues area retailers" Article follows:
Microsoft Corp. is suing three area computer retailers, alleging copyright and trademark infringement.
The civil cases filed last week in US. District Court for Northem Ohio are against Belka Inc. of Akron, J&G Computers of Akron and Mainstream Computers of Stow.
Penalties for software piracy can be as much as $150,000 for each copyright violation and $1 million for each instance of trademark infringement, according to a Microsoft press release.
Kamo Avanessian, owner of Belka Inc., denied the allegations. “We don’t recall selling anything illegal, because everything we are selling is licensed,” he said. “The license stickers say we are buying Microsoft, and those stickers are on everything we load Windows on.”
Avanessian said he received a warning letter from Microsoft some months ago and thought he had cleared up what he described as a misunderstanding. “I think that this is not only a misunderstanding, this is misjudgment on their part”’ he said. “I need to hire a lawyer, pay the money for that and defend myself.”
John Majka of Mainstream Computers said he might be the victim of employee misconduct. “It’s hard to find employees that will do what you ask them to,” he said. “So they do what they will do, and they loaded software illegally, and what can you do but fire them?” Majka said he also received a warning letter and talked to his three employees. “I said we can’t do this,” he said. “If anybody is doing this it’s got to stop now. And now this came about and I am not sure why.” Majka said most of the computers he sells are used and trade on eBay or from his Web site.
Both Majka and Avanessian complained that Microsoft sells Windows and other products at cut rates to Dell and other big manufacturers, making it hard for small players like them to compete. “The cheapest license that I can buy for Windows XP Home is somewhere around $80,” said Avanessian. “The cheapest computer Dell dumps on the market is $299 with Windows loaded on it, and that’s impossible. It is impossible to sell it for that price and not be losing money.”
Microsoft contends it is coming to the defense of small computer retailers. “We are really trying to make sure that (the small retailer) channel is clean, and that things are not risky just because they are small,” said Mary Jo Schrade, senior attorney with Microsoft Corp. in Redmond, Wash. She said Microsoft discovered many of the examples of software piracy by having secret shoppers buy computers and send them to the company for analysis. She described piracy as a fraud on consumers. “One of the important things from our standpoint is we want you as a consumer to know that wherever you go, to know that you are getting legitimate software,” she said.
J&G Computers could not be reached for comment.
