Microsoft said on April 3 that it fired a legal salvo against traffickers of its software discounted for students overseas. The Redmond, Washington, software colossus said it filed nine lawsuits in United States federal courts and sent more than 50 "cease and desist" letters to companies in Jordan and other countries.
Microsoft accused the companies of making millions of dollars in illegal profits by trafficking in specially priced academic software intended for academic programs.
The lawsuits charged the companies with posing as academic software resellers to get hundreds of thousands of copies of Microsoft Windows and Office software discounted for students.
The companies reaped millions of dollars in profits by selling the software to US Internet retailers instead of schools or students, court documents allege.
"Jordan has invested heavily in transforminng itself into a full-fledged knowledge economy," Jordan's Minister of Information and Communications Technology Basem Rousan said in a written statement.
Internet retailer EDirect Software.com, accused of being one of the largest offenders, has reportedly agreed to settle Microsoft's lawsuit out of court for more than a million dollars in cash and property.
"The defendants are charged with profiting from selling clearly marked educational software to unsuspecting retail customers who were not licensed to use it and potentially depriving students and schools of the opportunity to benefit from the latest technologies," said Microsoft attorney Bonnie MacNaughton.
Microsoft said that other merchants that received cease and desist letters have agreed to voluntarily stop selling the software, which is marked "Student Media" and "Not for resale."
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