A multimillion dollar settlement is the result of a compensation that French company MPO Group will have to pay Microsoft for software counterfeiting. Although the actual amount has not been disclosed by any of the parties involved, Microsoft's suggestions did point to a multimillion figure. The MPO Group has not disputed in any way Microsoft's affirmation.

Moreover, the CD duplicator company has already paid Microsoft compensation for an incident involving the duplication of in excess of 20,000 counterfeit copies of Microsoft's Exchange and SQL Server products.

MPO stated that the 20,000 bootlegged copies of Microsoft software have resulted as a consequence of a license misunderstanding. In fact, MPO's copied disks were delivered to a third party that was in the possession of a forged Microsoft license agreement for software distribution.

But even if the software distribution license had not been forged, Microsoft still does not allow for its software to be reproduced under third-party licenses. The Redmond Company revealed that the MPO Group and Microsoft have a direct replication agreement involving other software products.

The 20,000 counterfeit copies of Microsoft's Exchange and SQL Server products have lead Microsoft to the MPO Group from the Asian continent where the Redmond Company began test purchases and disc examination. MPO is a member of the International Recording Media Association's Anti-Piracy Compliance Program since 2005.