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Microsoft's corporate vice president of communication Frank X. Shaw has given the company's take on the conviction of Eric Lundgren for allegedly ordering unauthorized copies of Windows:
In the last few days there have been several stories about the sentencing of Eric Lundgren in a case that began in 2012, and we have received a number of questions about this case and our role in it. Although the case was not one that we brought, the questions raised recently have caused us to carefully review the publicly available court documents. All of the information we are sharing in this blog is drawn from those documents. We are sharing this information now and responding publicly because we believe both Microsoft's role in the case and the facts themselves are being misrepresented.
- Microsoft did not bring this case: U.S. Customs referred the case to federal prosecutors after intercepting shipments of counterfeit software imported from China by Mr. Lundgren.
- Lundgren established an elaborate counterfeit supply chain in China: Mr. Lundgren traveled extensively in China to set up a production line and designed counterfeit molds for Microsoft software in order to unlawfully manufacture counterfeit discs in significant volumes.
- Lundgren failed to stop after being warned: Mr. Lundgren was even warned by a customs seizure notice that his conduct was illegal and given the opportunity to stop before he was prosecuted.
- Lundgren pleaded guilty: The counterfeit discs obtained by Mr. Lundgren were sold to refurbishers in the United States for his personal profit and Mr. Lundgren and his codefendant both pleaded guilty to federal felony crimes.
- Lundgren went to great lengths to mislead people: His own emails submitted as evidence in the case show the lengths to which Mr. Lundgren went in an attempt to make his counterfeit software look like genuine software. They also show him directing his co-defendant to find less discerning customers who would be more easily deceived if people objected to the counterfeits.
- Lundgren intended to profit from his actions: His own emails submitted as evidence before the court make clear that Mr. Lundgren's motivation was to sell counterfeit software to generate income for himself.
- Microsoft has a strong program to support legitimate refurbishers and recyclers: Our program supports hundreds of legitimate recyclers, while protecting customers.
TechCrunch calls Microsoft's blog post "spin" for misrepresenting recovery discs as equivalent to entire licensed operating systems, hyping the "elaborate counterfeit supply chain", etc. Frank Shaw also defends the company in the comments for that article.
Also at The Verge.
Previously: 'E-Waste' Recycling Innovator Faces Prison for Trying to Extend Life Span of PCs
(Score: 3, Informative) by choose another one on Monday April 30 2018, @05:55PM (1 child)
> If I understand correctly, he didn't subvert Microsoft's DRM, so why are Microsoft concerned?
> People can already go ahead and download the ISO (or proprietary-format equivalent) for Windows 10.
> MS allow this because they trust Win10's DRM to enforce licensing requirements, so they don't bother trying to control distribution of the binary blob.
From reading the evidence emails he wasn't dealing in Win10 at all - it was XP / 7. Those have much older and more cracked DRM, and are now more difficult to find (legit) downloads of, I certainly don't think you can go get it straight from MS unless you have MSDN or similar subscription access.
The techcrunch article makes the same mistake, showing an image of a windows XP SP3 disc and then saying that you can "go make one yourself" at (ms.com...)download/windows10
NO, you can't, that is very different software, and if in fact Win10 was the software on the disc shown that that is straight out misrepresentation/consumer fraud.
However, that still doesn't invalidate your point which is that this guy has gone down for apparently merely providing physical copies of an XP ISO merely as a convenience service for folks who didn't want to do it themselves. BUT, that explanation for his actions (and emails) doesn't stack up either - it that is what you were doing then why not just have a label that says "Win XP SP3 originally downloaded from MS" in 20pt text? Pretty sure I have CDs exactly like that (that I made myself), somewhere.
MS says: Lundgren went to great lengths to mislead people
Techcrunch says: Printing an accurate copy of a label for a disc isn’t exactly “great lengths.”
I says: WTF? why go to _any_ effort _at all_ to copy any label _if_ you are merely providing physical copies of an XP ISO to customers who already have a legit key???
I think the reason is that someone further down the line was going to be conned into believing they had purchased a legit product key and copy of XP, and part of that con was providing an accurate copy of a genuine Dell XP disc. This being in the US, I suspect the guy was offered a plea bargain to sing about the operation further down the line or face trial for copying Dell CD labels, which is what they had evidence for (remember they put Capone away for tax evasion). He then chose to do the trial and the time, maybe those folks down the line were not very nice...
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Tuesday May 01 2018, @04:44PM
+1 Informative. That's what I get for not reading TFA. From The Register:
Yup, that's going beyond 'helpful local computer technician' and into 'shady deliberate misrepresentation' alright.