Microsoft Suits Aim To Halt Pirating Software Giant Goes To Court To Curb ‘Hard Disk Loading’
Microsoft Corp. said Wednesday it had filed a dozen lawsuits against computer resellers in the New York City, Boston and San Francisco areas, alleging they installed unlicensed software and distributed counterfeit Microsoft products.
Microsoft said the lawsuits stem from a campaign launched by the company last year aimed at stopping “hard disk loading,” or the installation of pirated software on computers sold to customers.
The lawsuits were filed in U.S. District Courts for the eastern and southern districts of New York, district of Massachusetts, and northern district of California.
The suits all allege copyright and trademark infringement of Microsoft products, including the Windows and MS-DOS operating systems and Office business software. In the California cases, Microsoft said, all defendants except Umiracle had previously settled with Microsoft for similar illegal activities.
Microsoft said it filed the lawsuits after investigating 17 companies in New York, 23 in California and 17 in Massachusetts. During the investigation, Microsoft alleged, personal computers were bought from the defendants that contained unauthorized software.
Named in the New York lawsuits were Prime Computers Inc. of New York City; Brooklyn Computer Center, also known as Eastern Micro and Golden Technology Distribution Corp. of Brooklyn; and Century Computer, also known as Five Star Computer Corp. of Flushing.
In California, lawsuits were filed against Umiracle Microsystems Inc. of Fremont; Hitron Systems of Santa Clara; Multi-Function Concept Computer Systems Inc., doing business as MCC Systems of San Jose; Distar Inc. of San Jose; Songtech International Inc. of Fremont; and MIT Inc., doing business as Laitron Computers of San Jose.
The Massachusetts suits were filed against MCS, doing business as Bits and Chips of Whitman; Perfect PC Inc. of Newton; and Advanced Communications Technology Inc. of Natick.
In addition, Microsoft said it reached settlements with nine other companies in the Boston area.