Microsoft helped imprison a man for ‘counterfeiting’ software it gives away free
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Re: Microsoft helped imprison a man for ‘counterfeiting’ software it gives away free
#2If Lundgren was counterfeiting software that you could "download for free", then why did he and Bob Wolff go around buying genuine Dell recovery discs in order to produce their own copies?
Re: Microsoft helped imprison a man for ‘counterfeiting’ software it gives away free
#3Title is missleading:
"His actual crime, which he pleaded guilty to, was counterfeiting the packaging to make the discs pass for Dell-branded ones."
He misled his customers in order to make money.
This isnt really different than selling knock off gucci handbags. Sure they probably work & look the same, but it does damage to the legitimate brand.
Re: Microsoft helped imprison a man for ‘counterfeiting’ software it gives away free
#4If Lundgren was counterfeiting software that you could "download for free", then why did he and Bob Wolff go around buying genuine Dell recovery discs in order to produce their own copies?
The article addresses this:
Of course, if you don’t have a DVD burner (remember, this was a while back — these days you’d use a USB drive), you’d have to get one from a friend who has one, a licensed refurbisher, or your manufacturer (for instance, Dell or Lenovo) for a fee.
Re: Microsoft helped imprison a man for ‘counterfeiting’ software it gives away free
#515 months sounds excessive, but the fact the software could be downloaded by customers for free is not a mitigating factor in a guy attempting to make a profit making it look as much as possible like a paid for product sold by Dell/Microsoft...
Re: Microsoft helped imprison a man for ‘counterfeiting’ software it gives away free
#6Did he or did he not seek to make a meaningful profit from this activity? I can't see information on that in the article. Also did he use the downloadable file or did he actually burn from an existing DELL disc? I think there would be software differences potentially there right? I got a reinstallation media sent out from DELL and it definitely seemed customised.
Re: Microsoft helped imprison a man for ‘counterfeiting’ software it gives away free
#7So many in this case are missing the point.
If Microsoft caught him violating their copyright, and it bothered Microsoft, Microsoft should have sued in civil court. That is the purpose of civil court- to penalize wrongdoing by companies. Happens all the time.
But Microsoft was never going to recover anything in civil court.
So Microsoft lied to the US government about the value of what was being "stolen", and got the US government to foot the bill of prosecuting the case.
This is called a civil-criminal hybrid case. It should be civilly prosecuted, but the US government gets in cahoots with a corporation and the pair conspire to make it a criminal prosecution, which allows the corporation to de facto imprison any person it helps to convict.
Microsoft was able to avoid the lion's share of the legal fees, and won't be responsible for any fees when and if the case is successfully appealed. You will, as a taxpayer, footing the DOJ's bill.
Any restitution Mr. Lundgren pays will be far higher a return than Microsoft could have gained in a civil case. As for the investigating body within the government, it gets enriched through forfeiture. Everybody wins, except the small guy and the taxpayer.
Mr. Lundgren might have been in a stronger position if he had not pled guilty to two of the counts. Whether to sign away your integrity for a potentially lighter sentence is a decision no one should have to make.
Re: Microsoft helped imprison a man for ‘counterfeiting’ software it gives away free
#8The other side of the case, which contains a lot of detail not mentioned here:
https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2018/04/27/the-fac...
Re: Microsoft helped imprison a man for ‘counterfeiting’ software it gives away free
#9Title is missleading: "His actual crime, which he pleaded guilty to, was counterfeiting the packaging to make the discs pass for Dell-branded ones." He misled his customers in order to make money. This isnt really different than selling knock off gucci handbags. Sure they probably work & look the same, but it does damage to the legitimate brand.
My understanding was that he was changing $.75 (essentially the cost of the DVDs)?
Re: Microsoft helped imprison a man for ‘counterfeiting’ software it gives away free
#10Title is missleading: "His actual crime, which he pleaded guilty to, was counterfeiting the packaging to make the discs pass for Dell-branded ones." He misled his customers in order to make money. This isnt really different than selling knock off gucci handbags. Sure they probably work & look the same, but it does damage to the legitimate brand.
Counterfeit handbags damage the brand either by being made of poor quality materials, or by just being sold cheaply, which undercuts the brand's ability to charge a premium. (Not making a value judgment of these practices; just it is what it is.)
Neither of those things is the case here. The discs are near-identical in quality to the discs Dell would have furnished, and (as far as I can tell), Dell essentially gives the discs away for free, only charging more or less for the effort needed to manufacture and ship them. Either way, Dell is certainly not profiting in any meaningful way from these discs, and getting a disc from someone else certainly wouldn't harm Dell's brand. They provide this service as a convenience to the customer, and likely it's actually a cost center.
Should he have used Dell's labeling and packaging? No, of course not. That was incredibly stupid. I don't think he did it with any nefarious reason to deceive; likely he just figured that a technically-unsophisticated customer would trust the discs more with the brand name matching the computer (even though a hypothetical disc with his own logo and packaging would be just as safe). A poor decision legally-speaking, definitely, but I don't see how throwing him in jail could ever be anything but an extreme overreaction to the facts at hand.