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Microsoft Sues Clearwater Store Over Pirated Software

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By RICHARD MULLINS

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 10, 2008

TAMPA - Microsoft Corp. has filed a federal lawsuit against a local branch of Computer Renaissance claiming the retailer sold pirated copies of Windows, Excel, PowerPoint and other programs on personal computers.

According to Microsoft attorneys, the practice went on for nearly a decade despite phone calls and letters from Microsoft warning against the practice.

"We've had this particular company on our radar since 2000," said Sharon Cates, an anti-piracy attorney for Microsoft. "We would send them letters, four letters in a row, follow up with phone calls. We'd try to talk them through this, but they just continued."

Messages left with the corporate offices of Computer Renaissance in Las Vegas were not returned.

The suit comes amid a wide push by Microsoft to crack down on a practice it calls "hard disk loading," where computer stores would take one copy of Windows and other programs and illegally copy it multiple times on different computers for sale.

As recently as March, Microsoft went so far as to send "secret shoppers" to the Clearwater Computer Renaissance location to buy computers and found they were loaded with the same copy of Microsoft software, Cates said. She said Microsoft didn't know the total number of duplicates sold to customers.

Microsoft on Monday filed 21 similar lawsuits against computer resellers in 14 states, including the lawsuit in federal court for the Middle District of Florida focusing on the Computer Renaissance location on U.S. 19 in Clearwater, Cates said. It seeks a range of financial damages.

Reporter Richard Mullins can be reached at (813) 259-7919 or rmullins@tampatrib.com.

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