Blackmoore writes:
SN reported last week the story of a search by Microsoft through a reporter's Hotmail account looking for evidence of stolen IP, which resulted in quite a bit of criticism for Microsoft's heavy-handed approach.
Mike Masnick at TechDirt reports that Microsoft and its legal team took the criticism seriously. Microsoft's General Counsel Brad Smith has now put out a new blog post announcing a complete change in policy, promising that it will not unilaterally look through any Microsoft user's content in search of "stolen" intellectual property. If such a search is thought necessary they will refer the matter to Law Enforcement.
(Score: 1) by kristian on Tuesday April 01 2014, @07:40PM
The whole issue here had to do with Microsoft's own intellectual property (in this case source code) being leaked through a hotmail account. I don't think that they intend to report anybody for distributing songs and movies. They probably take the same approach to this that other tech companies take, which is to ignore the infringement until a DMCA notice shows up.
The opinions expressed in this post are those of the individual sender and not those of Kristian Picon.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 01 2014, @09:53PM
FWIW "leaked through" is a little misleading. The sender, while a microsoft employee, did not use hotmail to send anything from microsoft. He did talk to a reporter who had a hotmail address - MS knew the reporter was involved (he reported it, duh) so MS went through the reporter's old email to see who had been talking to him.
(Score: 2) by frojack on Wednesday April 02 2014, @12:34AM
The prior incident was microsoft IP sent to hotmail.
However, the new policy addresses much more than simply Microsoft source code. You have to look past the triggering event, and toward the future, because that is exactly what Microsoft's new policy addresses.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.