By Tony Hallett, 20 January 1999 00:20
NEWS Microsoft yesterday spelled out what it thinks of software piracy when it ran a steamroller over counterfeit software worth £10m at its Reading, UK headquarters. Microsoft UK managing director, Neil Holloway, said: "This is a crime, just like any other crime. The UK IT industry lost £500,000,000 last year to piracy, and if we could keep it down, it would create another 31,000 jobs." He said fake software contains more viruses, is often sold incomplete and doesn't guarantee after-sales technical support. Last week police recovered an illegal haul of pirated Microsoft software worth an estimated £21m, and following robberies at distributors and manufacturing plants in Ireland and Scotland, Microsoft has said it will try to stamp out counterfeiting. To do that, it will continue to work with the police, other government agencies and the Business Software Alliance. When asked whether Microsoft should be overly concerned with small-scale counterfeiting, as opposed to losses measured in billions of dollars in the Far East, Holloway said: "The issue is not whether Microsoft can afford it. It's a problem for the whole industry, and what we're doing will benefit the whole industry."
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