Microsoft sues UK retailer over counterfeit Windows CDs

Microsoft Corp said it is suing Britain's second-largest electricals retailer Comet for allegedly creating and selling "counterfeit" recovery CDs of its flagship Windows operating system. In a statement on its website, Microsoft said the retailer created more than 94,000 sets of Windows Vista and XP recovery CDs and sold them to customers buying Windows-loaded PCs and laptops.
A recovery disk is used to reinstall the operating system in a PC in case of system failure. "It is disappointing that a well-known retailer created so many unwitting victims of counterfeiting," David Finn, associate general counsel at Microsoft for world-wide anti-piracy & anti-counterfeiting, told Reuters in an email. "In 2008 and 2009, Comet approached tens of thousands of customers who had bought PCs with the necessary recovery software already on the hard drive, and offered to sell them unnecessary recovery discs for £14.99," Finn said.