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[infowar.de] Microsoft: "Softwarepiraten finanzieren Terrorgruppen"
Infowar.de, http://userpage.fu-berlin.de/~bendrath/liste.html
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Nur als Dokumentation dafür, wie schamlos manche Trittbrettfahrer mit
dem 11. September umgehen. RB
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,49856,00.html
MS Refocuses on Software Pirates
By Michelle Delio
2:00 a.m. Jan. 22, 2002 PST
Software pirates, long ignored by everyone but the software industry
and those in search of cheap or free software, are increasingly coming
under the scrutiny of government and law enforcement officials.
Software pirates are now being arrested en masse. Pirates are also
accused of using the proceeds of their software sales to fund terrorist
organizations and organized crime, and of impairing their home
countries' ability to participate in foreign trade and investment
markets.
China, Russia and the Ukraine have recently enacted stricter laws to
punish pirates. And software companies have begun to use automated tools
that constantly scan the Internet, in search of sites offering illegal
sales or trades of their programs.
Software pirates are also delaying the hoped-for economic recovery,
according to Microsoft.
But some pirates claim their software sales aren't making them, or
terrorist organizations, rich.
"I make roughly $50 a month, and that's about what the others here
make," a dealer at Moscow's Mitino Outdoor Electronic market said.
The dealer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that he sells
Windows XP for 90 rubles, or a bit more than $3. Microsoft's Windows
2000 is also available for about 70 rubles ($2.09), along with Office
2000, priced at 55 rubles.
"My rent is 250 rubles a month. Food is expensive here. Like many
dealers, I have a child and a wife to support. I also have to buy my
products before I can sell them. How much would we have left over to
send to terrorists?"
He did acknowledge that the suppliers of the software discs he sells
are "probably" members of the Russian mafia. "But they are not
terrorists. And most people here find it easier to get things done
through the gangs than the government; gangs are more efficient than the
government."
Law enforcement officials said that organized crime gangs are
increasingly involved in software pirating, but said that pirates' ties
to terrorism did not appear to be widespread.
"Software pirating has definitely moved beyond some kid with a CD
burner who is willing to copy software for you," recently retired New
York City detective Pete Angonasta said. "Pirating is a big business
now, especially in Russia, parts of eastern Europe, Indonesia and much
of Asia. And contrary to what I've often read in the media, these guys
don't usually copy the stuff; they often hijack shipments, or break into
manufacture's warehouses, and steal the software, then sell it."
But Angonasta, after checking with contacts at the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, said he wasn't able to find more than one report about
profits from pirating going to fund terrorists.
"Look, criminals are involved in anything that will make them a
profit," Angonasta said. "And anything that will make a profit can also
be used to fund terrorism activities, so it's probably happening
somewhere. It's an interesting concept, but to my knowledge there's only
one possible case where they think one guy, who seemingly operates on
his own out of South America, may have been kicking back part of his
profits to a terrorist group. I just don't see this as a fascinating new
trend."
But Microsoft anti-piracy manager Diana Piquette said at a recent
press conference that piracy profits are being siphoned to terrorist
organizations and are also being used to fund the activities of
organized crime rings.
Piquette said the information she used in her press conference
concerning terrorist activities came from a study Microsoft had
commissioned last year on global software piracy.
"Results of the study indicated that an arrested counterfeiter in
Paraguay is alleged to be a financier of terrorist camps in the Middle
East," Piquette said. "The International Anti-Counterfeiting Coalition
has also reported that paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland funded
their terrorist activities through the sale of a variety of counterfeit
products. And links have also been discovered between the production of
counterfeit software and the drug cartels of Colombia."
The study Piquette referenced, "An Overview of the Manufacture and
Distribution of Counterfeit Microsoft Software," is not available
online.
Piquette also noted during the press conference that some more
recently pirated applications are of higher quality than their
predecessors. In the past, pirated software was a simple and somewhat
sloppy copy that as often as not didn't work properly when the purchaser
tried to install or use it. But pirates are becoming more sophisticated,
Piquette said.
Microsoft's anti-piracy division has also become more sophisticated.
Instituted five years ago, members of the anti-piracy division used to
manually search the Internet, site by site, for people selling illegal
copies of Microsoft software.
Now the company employs an in-house automated system that scans the
Net continuously looking for sites offering illegal copies of Microsoft
software.
"The tool is automated, and it scans the Internet 24 hours a day,
seven days a week, to identify pirate sites or illegal online
offerings," Piquette said. "The tool instructs us to quickly review the
sites and determine whether or not illegal activity is occurring.
"We can identify and address in excess of 500 illegal sites in a
single day, while it might take a month to manually shut down that many
sites. Microsoft started using it in 2000. The total number of takedowns
has been more than 88,000 in the last two years."
If "takedowns" sounds more like police talk than
software-company-speak, it may be because Microsoft's anti-piracy
division has strong ties to law enforcement. Rich LaMagna, the senior
manager in charge of worldwide investigations for Microsoft's Law and
Corporate Affairs group, was the former deputy chief of intelligence and
chief of the special intelligence division for the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration.
Microsoft and other software companies have also been working to push
governments to take piracy more seriously. They have seen some success
in this effort, according to Microsoft associate general counsel Nancy
Anderson, who manages the company's anti-piracy activities in the United
States, Canada and Latin America.
Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the expansion of
the government's anti-cybercrime efforts. The most recent expansion
includes the creation of 10 special teams of prosecutors whose main job
is to prosecute cybercrimes, with an emphasis on copyright and trademark
infringement. The U.S. government has also created the Intellectual
Property Rights Center to address violations of intellectual property
rights laws, Anderson said.
The U.S. government has also been responsible for pushing other
countries to take piracy seriously, Anderson said. China recently
cracked down on its local software pirates, fearing that the country
would be barred from joining the World Trade Organization if piracy were
allowed to continue unchecked.
Russia also began arresting pirates last summer.
On Thursday, the Ukraine's parliament approved a law designed to crack
down on pirated compact discs, in hopes that the move would avert $75
million in U.S. trade sanctions due next week.
The United States imposed sanctions on metals, footwear and other
goods from Ukraine in retaliation for piracy of software and music
compact discs.
"The United States is moving forcefully to protect its rights," U.S.
trade representative Robert Zoellick said in a statement. "We hope
Ukraine will now redouble its efforts to deal with intellectual property
rights and pass the legislation needed to allow us to lift sanctions."
The U.S. Trade Representative's office said the $75 million in
sanctions was equal to its estimate of U.S. industry losses caused each
year by the piracy. Zoellick also warned that Ukraine would find it
difficult to become a member of the World Trade Organization unless it
addresses the issue.
Piquette said that although Microsoft is working with governments and
law enforcement agencies, the majority of Microsoft's efforts will
center on consumer education.
"Sometimes people don't even realize they have bought illegal
software, or don't realize that sharing software with friends is
illegal," Piquette said.
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