Windows Genuine Advantage Customers Play Role In Piracy Bust


      Microsoft was sending around news yesterday about a huge bust of software counterfeiters in China made in conjunction with the FBI. 25 people were arrested in the two-year running operation ?Summer Solstice?, seizures of 290,000 counterfeit CDs and Certificates of Authenticity and $7 million in assets in China, as well as $2 million in assets and $700,000 in software in the U.S.. All told, if the fake software seized were sold as retail copies of Windows, it would have been worth half a billion dollars, and the syndicate shut down was responsible for over $2 billion worth of pirated software.
      
            
                  
                        As Microsoft explains
                  
            , it was able to catch these companies thanks to customers who notified them under the Windows Genuine Advantage program. Under the program, if PC makers install pirated copies of Windows on new PCs or sell fake CDs, the customer will be notified by WGA, and given the opportunity to report where they bought the PC or CD, and get a free copy of the real thing. The customer gets a Genuine copy of Windows, and Microsoft gets evidence towards arresting those who counterfeit Windows by the thousands.Continue At Source


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