mIcrOSOFt
Brand damage is not the only social motivation to because there’s a greater value to everybody
for Microsoft to enforce its rights. Arthur in having them remain in business, doing the
also deals with many instances in which IP right thing.”
infringement is used to finance crime.
back to the classroom
“People who infringe IP at an institutional level are “ tHe AbSence OF A
generally unpleasant and involved in a variety of
Its rehabilitation work with smaller resellers is
cd Or mIddLemAn
antisocial activities,” he says. “It’s very important
at the softer end of Microsoft’s spectrum of IP
to enforce IP in those situations, even if there is no
enforcement action. At the opposite extreme, betWeen mIcrOSOFt
obvious business correlation between what they’re
Microsoft looks beyond its own doorstep,
And ItS LIcenSeeS
doing and what Microsoft is losing.”
assisting Trading Standards with major
criminal cases.
dOeS Seem tO
the carrot before the stick
be A prOmISInG
As a ‘for instance’, take another look at that
Enforcing IP for social purposes can be seen as COA on your computer. Keeping in mind that
tActIc AGAInSt
a privilege reserved for large corporations with a copy of Windows Vista Home Basic retails pIrAcY. bUt In SUcH
money to burn. But, over the years, Microsoft has at £137.01, or you can pre-order Windows
A FASt-mOVInG
grown in wisdom as well as size and understands 7 Home Premium E for £79.99, what would
the old aphorism “justice without force is powerless; you expect to pay for another of those stickers
tecHnOLOGIcAL
force without justice is tyrannical”. It takes a as a licence allowing you to use Windows on IndUStrY, tHe FUtUre
pragmatic approach to enforcement, considering another PC?
IS neVer certAIn.”
the circumstances of each case from a strategic
point of view before deciding on its response.
The answer is that the stickers themselves
cannot be replicated, bought or sold. The question
“Most of the resellers who infringe our IP are is moot. But if you did make an estimate, then
small computer resellers, and they provide an you’re not alone. Even Trading Standards officers
important service to users of Microsoft software have been fooled by infringers’ ruse that the COA
because that’s where they get their computers,” is for sale—that peeling it off one machine and
says Arthur. “Microsoft doesn’t want to see them sticking it to another legitimises its use of pirated
out of business; it wants to see them in business Windows software.
doing the right thing.”
This example demonstrates the need for
When it catches them selling computers with education—of both the public and Trading Standards
unlicensed software, Microsoft punishes small officers—that Microsoft must never lose sight of.
we ensure that the fallacies that law enforcement
resellers financially, but it then gives them the As Arthur explains: “Someone who is loading
are told are identified and dealt with. That makes
opportunity to learn their lesson and become a software onto a computer without a licence often
Trading Standards’ lives a lot easier.”
useful and valuable partner. comes up with spurious reasons why they are allowed
Microsoft helped Trading Standards officers
to do that, or feigns ignorance about the restrictions
“If they’ve done it more than once then there’d
last year when they took a case against an
on how they can supply software. That’s where we
be a different approach, but to begin with,
unlawful reseller in Bournemouth, in the UK.
can help Trading Standards by in effect saying ‘that’s
there’s no business benefit to Microsoft in seeing
The reseller was supplying computers that
rubbish, and these are the reasons why’. ”
these businesses go under,” says Arthur. “The
essentially didn’t work because their software
fact is that it wouldn’t be difficult to put these Also, where there are complicated issues about
was unlicensed. After complaints from small
organisations out of business, but we choose not when you can and can’t load software and sell it,
businesses and home users, Trading Standards
decided that the case was serious enough to
warrant a prosecution. With Microsoft’s help,
the reseller was prosecuted, convicted, fined
and given community service.
“We will always support law enforcement if they
choose to take that sort of action in cases that
they think warrant it,” says Arthur.
He is equally confident of one other crucial
thing that Microsoft will always do: “Microsoft
will find out about businesses that find ways
of stealing from it. It might not find out about
them straight away, but it will find out about
e
l
a
b
them. And when it does, the decision as to
fl
a
m
whether to act is straightforward; Microsoft
/
m
cannot afford to have anything other than a
.
c
o
zero tolerance approach to theft of its IP.”
c
k
p
h
o
t
o
t
o
i
S
©
www.worldipreview.com World Intellectual property review September/October 2009 19
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