3 ms·
You are dramatically characterizing the case. The Feds are the plaintiffs in this case, not Microsoft. The man isn't going to prison for just distributing disks
by Bajeezus 8y ago
You are dramatically characterizing the case. The Feds are the plaintiffs in this case, not Microsoft. The man isn't going to prison for just distributing disks, he's going to jail for fraudulently claiming that his disks were authentic and going so far as to get the original disk design printed on his fake disks. The government originally claimed that the copyright violations on these disks were valued at several hundred dollars per disk, but Microsoft had that value reduced to about $25 per disk, so Microsoft actually helped to reduce his punishment.
- lawnchair_larry 8y agoNo, that’s not true either. Read the court documents. He is going to prison for pirating Windows specifically. The judge even used the word pirating. Which, he clearly did not do. He distributed a copy of what is otherwise free, from both OEMs and Microsoft themselves, and could only be reasonably valued at $0, on a disc. The government even explicitly said that the infringed item was not the disc itself, but the software on the disc. That software was not counterfeit. It was Windows, the same Windows on MSDN, but with no license. Also, Microsoft did not have the value reduced, nor did they help him at all.