Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Tuesday April 01 2014, @07:00PM   Printer-friendly
from the we-won't-look-we'll-get-law-enforcement-to-do-that dept.

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.

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1) by kristian on Tuesday April 01 2014, @07:40PM

    by kristian (2395) <reversethis-{ni.lffaw} {ta} {naitsirk}> on Tuesday April 01 2014, @07:40PM (#24434) Homepage

    However, the police aren't going to do anything about sum random request unless there are big lawyers involved. Seriously, what police force has the time to track down someone distributing a song or a movie on some random web site.

    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

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 01 2014, @09:53PM (#24482)

    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

    by frojack (1554) on Wednesday April 02 2014, @12:34AM (#24540) Journal

    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.