Microsoft says fully committed to protecting consumers, honest partners

Microsoft is determined to continue its lawful mission of protecting consumers from the risks of counterfeit/pirated software.

In a report carried in the Daily FT recently, it was stated that the Commercial High Court of Colombo refused to grant an interim injunction sought by Microsoft to prevent Mohamed Uvais Mohamed Dilshad, the proprietor of Media Centre at No. 315, 1st Floor Unity Plaza, Colombo 4, from selling unlicensed copies of Microsoft software.

According to Sudath Perera, the lawyer representing Microsoft, “This case is far from being concluded under the machinery available for appeal. Furthermore and in fact, the law suit filed by Microsoft in 2010 is still pending before the Commercial High Court.

“The non-issuance by the High Court of the interim injunction is now the subject matter of an Appeal application, which has already been filed in the Supreme Court by Microsoft and Microsoft is continuing to vigorously pursue the Appeal in order to protect its legal rights. An interim injunction is usually applied for by the rights owner before the trial, to ensure the infringement alleged by the rights owner does not continue until the matter is decided by the Court during the trial proper.”

“Microsoft and their lawyers are unable at this juncture to comment further on the proceedings per se given the pendency of the case before the High Court and the Leave to Appeal application before the Supreme Court.

According to Jonathan Selvasegaram, Corporate Attorney from the Legal Department of Microsoft based in Singapore, Microsoft’s legal team has filed law suits previously in Sri Lanka, and will continue to take such action due to the priority placed on protecting consumers and ensuring there is a fair playing field for computer dealers to compete.

Computer system builders who sell personal computers or laptops with illicit software installed, also known within the industry as “hard disk loading,” before being sold to unsuspecting customers, are putting consumers at serious risk.

Unsuspecting customers who have been expecting and deserving genuine software with the quality, license, warranty and technical support that they associate with the Microsoft name, could then be subjected to security risks.

Selvasegaram stated that consumers need to be most vigilant when buying a new computer. “Using pirated software exposes consumers and businesses to a variety of security risks including viruses, malware and spyware.”

He further explained: “Pirated software are usually hacked or modified by unscrupulous pirated CD manufacturers to bypass technology protection measures employed by the original manufacturers. Unfortunately, what this means is that the software becomes unstable and may crash, or you may not be able to receive critical software updates or patches, thus rendering your system unprotected.

“It is simply is not worth risking the loss of your valuable data and photos by using pirated software. Vendors should conduct their business responsibly and ethically by educating customers to ask for only genuine original software to be installed onto computers to be purchased. It is also unfair to honest retailers who sell original software if those selling pirated software are able to undercut honest retailers’ new computer pricing.”

On the other hand there are a number of programmes which help support Genuine Partners to help them sell more in the market, he added.