Microsoft files 26 U.S. piracy lawsuits

Microsoft Corp. has filed 26 lawsuits accusing U.S. companies of selling pirated software, the latest move in the company’s ramped-up efforts to boost its software sales by cracking down on illegal copies.

The Redmond software giant filed the lawsuits Friday in U.S. District courts in Georgia, Illinois, Ohio, Colorado, South Carolina, New York and New Jersey. The lawsuits accuse the companies of selling illegal copies of its Windows operating system and Office business software.

The lawsuits are the latest in Microsoft’s increasingly aggressive steps to curb piracy of its two flagship products — and cash cows — Windows and Office.

The company has begun widespread distribution of a program, called Windows Genuine Advantage, that checks whether users are running legitimate copies of Windows. And it scored a coup earlier this year when China agreed to more seriously crack down on piracy, which is believed to be extremely widespread there.

“McDonald’s Corp. said Monday its second-quarter earnings will top analysts’ expectations thanks to a strong showing by its European restaurants and increased U.S. breakfast sales that combined to boost June sales. The news pushed its stock up nearly 5 percent.

The world’s largest restaurant company posted a 5.9 percent increase in worldwide same-store sales last month, including 5.2 percent in the United States and 4.5 percent in Europe, the two markets where a majority of its outlets are located.

The same-stores increase, reflecting restaurants open more than a year, also were an impressive 8.8 percent in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa segment primarily due to strong performance in Japan and Australia.

“The last holdout union at Northwest Airlines Corp. tentatively agreed to deep pay cuts and work rule changes Monday, bringing the bankrupt carrier closer to the labor savings it sought for three years.

The agreement headed off harsh threats from the union and the nation’s fifth-largest airline.

Northwest told union negotiators that unless they made a deal, at 8 a.m. Monday it would impose terms that 80 percent of flight attendants had rejected last month, according to Mollie Reiley, Interim President of the Northwest branch of the Association of Flight Attendants.