War on CopyRight violators

[George at Orwellian.Org]

http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB986164716595422714.htm
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#    April 2, 2001 
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#    Microsoft Urges Global Attack
#    Against Piracy of Software
#    
#[snip]
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#    To combat such piracy, Microsoft recently entered into a formal 
#    partnership with the U.S. Customs Service to exchange information 
#    on intellectual-property crimes around the world. The agency 
#    has similar partnerships with other companies and trade 
#    associations, including Underwriters Laboratories and the Motion 
#    Picture Association of America.
#    
#    The partnership is a formalized cooperation process where 
#    information is exchanged regularly, according to Customs spokesman 
#    Dennis Murphy. "These partnership agreements have become an 
#    effective way for us to get better information and do a better 
#    enforcement job, as well as a way for the company to get a more 
#    effective means to police their copyrights," Mr. Murphy said.
#    
#    Microsoft also has aggressively recruited its own security force 
#    of former government agents led by Richard LaMagna, a 27-year 
#    veteran of the Drug Enforcement Administration who speaks 
#    Cantonese, Mandarin, French and Thai. During the past six months, 
#    Microsoft officials say, the company has taken legal action 
#    against 47,000 dubious or illegal postings on the Internet 
#    offering its products.
#    
#    The Customs Service, through its network of attaches around the 
#    world, helps Microsoft and other companies work with foreign 
#    police agencies. In conjunction with the Federal Bureau of 
#    Investigation, the agency last year inaugurated a new Intellectual 
#    Property Rights Center in Washington to serve as a command center 
#    for operations against copyright violators.
#    
#    The stepped-up antipiracy efforts reflect new concern about an 
#    old problem for software makers. "As we've seen organized criminal 
#    enterprises focusing on counterfeiting and taking it to the 
#    Internet, it is becoming an even more important problem for the 
#    industry and the company," Microsoft Deputy General Counsel Brad 
#    Smith said.
#    
#    Counterfeiters, many in Asia, have recently shifted distribution 
#    networks onto the Web, which provides a host of benefits, 
#    including anonymity.
#    
#    In addition to Latin America, Microsoft says recent seizures 
#    have taken place in Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, the Philippines, 
#    the People's Republic of China, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, 
#    the United Kingdom, Romania, Hungary, Germany, Poland, Canada 
#    and the U.S.