The SIIA white paper also shows how suspected pirates are using Internet auctions to turn better than a 90 percent profit from sales of illegal software products, and how they are reaching thousands of new customers with little effort or cost.
They argue that the software is illegal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which prohibits the distribution of software or devices intended to circumvent copyright protections.
The settlements relate to college students who had been selling illegal copies of Microsoft's software through auction sites out of Sacramento, California and Chicago, Illinois.
The site, which was estimated to get up 140, 000 hits a day, did not contain illegal copies of video games or software but had message boards where people could share tips about pirated material.
In its definition of illegal, SIIA officials counted backup copies of software, as well as CD-RW software, regardless of whether the owner had a license or not.
Kish is charged with selling pirated copies of 11 software titles, while Chu is charged with selling illegal copies of 21 titles, Stevens said.
The anti-piracy software loaded onto the CDs was meant to stop illegal copying, but it was found that the program inadvertently made computers vulnerable to viruses.
He concluded that while the monopoly itself was not illegal, Microsoft's abuse of its power justified breaking the software giant in two.
All the same, that figure sits uncomfortably alongside a claim by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), for example, that nearly ten million illegal downloads took place in December 2009 alone.
We also pointed out that free software's rise counters the Justice Department's contention that Microsoft is an illegal monopoly.
Backed by software-industry money, it offers rewards in exchange for any tips leading it to illegal factories.
ECONOMIST: Software piracy: Better than the real thing | The
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