UK retailer pirated over 90,000 copies of Windows and sold them to customers (Yahoo! News)

Comet stores have allegedly been peddling tens of thousands of illegal discs

Piracy is a worldwide problem that typically conjures up images of teenagers using seedy file sharing sites to download the latest movie or video game for free. But sometimes the face of piracy is much larger, as is the case with U.K. electronics retailer Comet. According to a new complaint filed by non other than?Microsoft, the store chain illegally duplicated some 94,000 copies of both?Windows Vista and?Windows XP, and sold them to customers.

The suit alleges that Comet set up shop at a factory in Hampshire, England, where it took legitimate Windows recovery and reinstallation discs and made tens of thousands of copies. The company then supposedly bundled the illegal software with new PCs and sold them at its stores.

After Microsoft's very public accusation, Comet ? which is going through some tough times keeping its bottom line above water ? issued a statement in its defense. The company claims that it was acting in the best interest of its customers, and only began providing the illegal discs when Microsoft halted the inclusion of recovery software with new PCs, and that it plans to vigorously defend its position in court.

(Source)

This article originally appeared on Tecca

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Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/techblog/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_technews/20120104/tc_yblog_technews/uk-retailer-pirated-over-90000-copies-of-windows-and-sold-them-to-customers

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