MS raids partners at Lamington Road

In yet another anti-piracy drive carried out by Microsoft on Oct 28, 2009,
the software giant has caught hold of Rajshree Systems and Plug In, the two
partners based at Lamington Road in Mumbai, on account of piracy. According to
the sources at Lamington road, a total of 11 partners were questioned on the
grounds of indulging in piracy, following which the above two partners have been
arrested.

When contacted, Vipul Sant, Director-Original Software Initiative, Microsoft
India stated, "Microsoft has executed criminal actions against both the targets,
as it is Microsoft's allegation that they were indulging in distribution and
selling of high-end counterfeit of Microsoft software in violation of the
Copyright Act, 1957. Any person dealing in high-end counterfeit causes a serious
fraud on Microsoft and its customers who are attempting to buy genuine software.
High-end counterfeit software also poses a serious risk of having embedded
malware, spyware and other computer viruses, which can cause huge losses to the
user, in terms of stolen information, hacking and control of their PC."

The police conducted raids and the case will proceed as per the Criminal
Procedure Code and could mean imprisonment and/or penalties. Under the Copyright
Act, a person indulging in software piracy could be fined up to Rs 2 lakh and
can be imprisoned for up to three years.

Sharing Microsoft's road map of anti-piracy, Sant opined, "It has been
Microsoft's endeavor to work with the reseller community across India to create
a healthy and safe reseller ecosystem, where genuine software is adopted as a
correct and safe IT business practice. The three pillars of our outreach are
education, engagement and enforcement. Every year, Microsoft sends periodic
letter mailers and EDMs addressed to channel owners and partners to educate them
about the products, problem of software piracy, informing them about the risks
and dangers of indulging in software piracy, both to them as well as to their
customers. At the second level, we work closely with approximately 12-13 channel
associations across various regions to collaborate on intellectual property and
piracy awareness programs to their member base."

Both Rajshree Systems and Plug In could not be reached despite repeated calls
at the time of filing the report.