14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has filed a lawsuit against an IP that allegedly attempted to activate pirated copies of Windows and Office, claiming both copyright and trademark infringement.
The company explains in the court documents that this particular IP address has been used by an unnamed individual or group of persons, referred to as “John Does 1-10,” to activate no less than 1,000 copies of unlicensed software.
As GeekWire notes, the IP address mentioned in the lawsuit, namely 73.21.204.220, appears to be used by a Comcast office in New Jersey, though the name of the defendant is not available at this point.
“During the software activation process, Defendants contacted Microsoft activation servers in Washington over 2800 times from December 2014 to July 2017, and transmitted detailed information to those servers in order to activate the software,” Microsoft says.
The software giant typically goes after software pirates trying to activate a significant number of pirated products, and in this case the firm says it’s very likely the IP address belongs to a store that installs unlicensed software on the devices it sells.
The software piracy problem
Windows 7, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10, as well as Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 are the products that the pirates attempted to activate, according to court documents.
The company goes on to explain that the licenses were used more times than authorized or to activate software outside of the region for which they were intended.
Windows and Office continue to be two of the most pirated products worldwide, especially in countries like China where piracy remains a major issue for the software giant. Former CEO Steve Ballmer said in 2014 that 9 in 10 versions of Windows running in China were pirated, and the company even worked together with the local government to install genuine copies of the operating system on systems operated by state departments.
The company hasn’t offered a statement in this case, but Microsoft is expected to either win the lawsuit or to reach a settlement with the unnamed defendant.