City identified as a hotspot for piracy

0 Comments | Evening Post; Bristol (UK), Jul 7, 2010

BRISTOL has been identified as a hotspot for software piracy by computer giant Microsoft.

The software company said it has reached settlements with 21 vendors, who admitted loading pirated software on to the hard discs of computers, and then selling it on.

Whistleblowers have also opened the way for the firm’s investigators to identify four UK traders using internet auction sites to sell software illegally. Customers believed they were getting discounts, but the computer shops were making huge profits on copies of genuine software or software downloaded from the internet.

Michala Wardell, head of anti-piracy at Microsoft UK, said most people were unaware that they are actually buying pirate copies of software.

Student demand is also thought to be driving demand in hotspots which include London, Huddersfield, Warrington, Manchester and Bristol.

Most of those caught either claimed the illegal activities were carried out by rogue employees or that they were not aware that what they were doing was illegal.

However, most of them admitted the wrongdoing and have agreed to work with Microsoft on how best to source and sell software.