MS resumes anti-piracy drive in Pondicherry

NR Sethuraman

Chennai

June 2, 2008

After a few months of lull, Microsoft has resumed its anti-piracy operations
in Tamil Nadu. This time the action has started in the Pondicherry market with
some dealers having received a letter from Microsoft asking them to attend a
meeting with their officials for installing pirated OS versions and encouraging
piracy in the area.

In the letter, Microsoft has stated that dealers are liable to three years
imprisonment and a fine of Rs 2 lakh if they fail to attend the meeting. But
dealers who attended the meeting claim that no Microsoft official was present,
and only the legal advocate was presiding the meeting. “The advocate has
issued a three page legal notice to the dealers and negotiated with each of them
to pay some amount for preventing any legal action against them. Dealers are
apprehensive about whether they should pay the fine amount or the negotiated
amount, for fear of future action being taken against them despite paying up,”
informed a dealer on the condition of anonymity.

It is also said that only one of the dealers, who were summoned for the
meeting, was a member of IT Traders Association (ITTA), the rest were
freelancers. When contacted, M Magesh, President, ITTA, Pondichery, said that
the association had sent innumerable mails to dealers on the original software
awareness front. “We have sent lots of educational mails to our dealers to
sell original packs and ignore pirated software. The awareness is there among
our members which is evident from the fact that only one dealer among those
summoned was a member of our association,” Magesh informed.

He also said that the actions of Microsoft couldn't be questioned, as the
vendor was doing everything legally. “Our association will continue to support
such actions. That is the only way we can end piracy in the market,” Magesh
claimed. It may be noted that Confed-ITA agreed to work closely with Microsoft
in culling piracy across the state and requested Microsoft to assist them in
increasing awareness of original software among dealers.

However, no initiatives were undertaken and the anti-piracy drives resumed
after a year's gap. When contacted, S Karthikeyan, President, Confed-ITA, said
he was awaiting an official communication from ITTA. “We are yet to receive
any official communication from ITTA, Pondichery on the issue and only after
that can we take any decision,” Karthikeyan informed.

Referring to the decision of Microsoft in the meeting that took place
recently in Coimbatore, Karthikeyan said, “In a recent meeting with Microsoft,
the vendor clearly put forward their intention of culling piracy across the
state and asked everyone to refrain from indulging in any such activities. They
have done their part by informing to us about their activities and it is
everyone's responsibility to act accordingly,” he averred.

Commenting on the issue, Vipul Sant, Director, Microsoft India said, “Microsoft's
efforts in the channel are focused on protecting the honest reseller community
from competing in an unfair market and to protect consumers from the perils of
using pirated software. It is common knowledge that there are some resellers who
offer to install pirated Microsoft software onto the computers sold to
customers, a practice known as 'hard-disk loading.' This amounts to a
violation of Copyrights Laws in India and Microsoft has the right to prevent the
violation of its intellectual property.” He added that legal action is
Microsoft's last resort, and the company would conduct random enquiries in the
channel to check piracy and to protect resellers and customers. “In that sense
we have been covering Tamil Nadu on a regular basis and have been engaged with
the regional association-Confed-IT for quite some time to spread awareness and
education on perils of pirated software amongst the dealer community,” he
shared.

Microsoft regularly engages with dealers and channel partners to educate them
about the value of original software and the perils of piracy. Sant clarified
that because of this sustained initiative resellers are well aware of the legal
implications of software piracy. Microsoft's overall objective is to get
resellers, who indulge in software piracy, to promote original software that
will enable them to earn the trust of their customers and remain safe.