Microsoft To Sue Comet Group For Selling Fake Windows Recovery CDs

(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said it is suing Britain's second-largest electronics 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.


Comet is owned by Kesa Electricals, Europe's No. 3 electronics retailer, but is in the process of being sold to private equity group OpCapita.


A Kesa spokesman told Reuters that Comet provided the disks as a service to its customers between March 2008 and December 2009. It stopped the practice when Microsoft raised objections.


Consumers buying PCs or laptops could create their own recovery CDs but many did not, and faced problems when their computers failed, he said.


Microsoft, or the PC manufacturer, used to provide the recovery disks but stopped doing that in 2007, the spokesman said.


"There was a number of disks made, on which there was a cost and Comet charged this to the customer."


Comet believes the supply of the recovery CDs was in the best interests of its customers and "has a good sense of its claim and will defend its position vigorously," he said.


Kesa shares were down 6 percent at 67 pence at 1402 GMT on the London Stock Exchange on Wednesday. Microsoft shares closed at $26.77 on Tuesday on Nasdaq.


(Reporting by Himank Sharma and Tresa Sherin Morera in Bangalore; Editing by Maju Samuel)

Related on HuffPost:

Comments

[republic84]

05:58 PM on 01/06/2012

Microsoft is gonna chew them up and spit them out. They tend to win these arguments 99% of the time. If you need recovery disks, just burn them yourself, the option is there and 2-3 CDRs cost alot less than 15. You can usually call Microsoft and order that stuff from them also. If comet would have just handed them out, Microsoft would have been angry, but probably left it at a stern talking to. By selling the disks, they violated international copyright laws, no matter if the reason for doing it. The protecting our customers defense sounds like they got caught with their proverbial pants down and tried to cover. Good Samaritans don't charge for their deeds...

[RecreationalPilot]

01:04 PM on 01/05/2012

That's what really S-U-C-K-S about Microsoft.

They stopped providing the recovery disks to customers, placing the burden of creating them squarely on their customers - all to save a dollar or two per copy. Most folks don't think about creating a recovery disk - I did with my kid's two new laptops running WIN7, but that was a pain and took quite a long time to do.

Stop being cheap and provide the recovery disk along with the seat license.

[JManspeaks]

11:59 AM on 01/05/2012

Why would Microsoft support good customer relations by a vendor for the old operating system? We all know the newest version of Windows is the best operating system ever, and if you buy it now there will be no need to ever buy another OS again!

Until the next sucker OS comes out that they are already working on at the old lab.

Former Windows user.

[torriee]

04:17 PM on 01/04/2012

The real issue is that Comet charged people for the discs - they could of just instructed them to make their own from the Operating system

[JavaSavant]

04:30 PM on 01/04/2012

Not if the computer they bought didn't have a CD burner.

[HonestJohnnis]

06:59 PM on 01/04/2012

USB thumbdrive.

[planetjeffy]

04:15 PM on 01/04/2012

I forget...am I supposed toHate Microsoft and love Apple
or vice versa?

[Fogy]

04:01 PM on 01/04/2012

If you don't protect it, you lose it. Microsoft has little choice.

[waldopepper]

04:00 PM on 01/04/2012

Microsofts objection is rooted in their belief that this action hurt sales of subsequent operating systems because maintaining operating systems that they, Microsoft, ceased supporting would mean that the users would have no need to replace their existing systems. Greed rather than good customer relations were the priorities.

[PenguinLinux]

04:04 PM on 01/04/2012

Well, I think that's true to a point..... I mean, I wouldn't expect Red Hat to support version 1.0. At SOME point you have to say as a company, "Look, at XYZ point, we have to stop supporting ABC". Normal life cycle on Windows is 7 years. 5 years mainstream and 2 years extended (paid) support. by that measure, XP (released in 2001), would have reached EOL in 2008, yet here we are 4 years later than that, 10+ years and counting with another 2 years to go, before XP is 100% dead, a total of 13 years.

[waldopepper]

06:13 PM on 01/04/2012

"I wouldn't expect Red Hat to support version 1.0."

If Red Hat 1.0 had 35% of the market I would. XP and Vista are currently used on something like 35% of systems. At least according to this data... http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_os.asp

Each machine which continues to run these operating systems are a cost to Microsoft, rather than a source of revenue.

People are largely still satisfied with XP, to the chagrin of Microsoft which profits from each new sale of an operating system. Each person who cannot get support for XP is a potential customer for another operating system. Which Microsoft rightly surmises will be Win7.

Consequently Microsoft is trying to prevent third party vendors from supporting what Microsoft is trying to typify as a "legacy" operating system. But in reality they are not legacy systems - they are people who are satisfied with XP/VIsta. People who Microsoft should see as valued customers - but they do not.

Monopoly economics at work.

[six seven]

04:13 PM on 01/04/2012

Could it also be that the pirated copies of Windows will not pass validation, and therefore not be fully functional? Gasp! Through this action, MS could actually be looking out for consumers...

[PenguinLinux]

04:15 PM on 01/04/2012

IF MSFT were looking out for consumers, then the Windows 7 upgrade from the abomination that is Vista, would have been free.

[JavaSavant]

04:35 PM on 01/04/2012

You are misreading the article. There are no pirated copies of Windows involved. They created recovery disks, which cannot Activate a copy of Windows. It just restores it to factory settings.

[Darrion Beckles]

03:52 PM on 01/04/2012

Microsoft sounds desperate.... for money... for attention.

[HonestJohnnis]

07:04 PM on 01/04/2012

lol.. I don't think you could be further from the truth Darrion.

[becky bradshaw]

03:36 PM on 01/04/2012

Microsoft is suing Comet for providing a logical customer service. Microsoft should introspect.

[Zenith1959]

03:33 PM on 01/04/2012

When I bought the laptop I'm using right now, Best Buy included the recovery discs, it was included in a set up fee where they did a few other things, is that the same thing?

[PenguinLinux]

03:52 PM on 01/04/2012

that's the "Optimization" you paid for. They made the sics for you vs you doing them. I nthe good old days, the discs were just included, so no, it's not the same thing.

[MSMSucksCom]

03:28 PM on 01/04/2012

Really, when it comes down to it, but for their money-grabbing ulterior motives, recovery discs should be provided with every computer purchased.

This is because 99.9% of computer users don't have a clue what "recovery disc" means, much less having the time to create the discs. (I made a set of recovery discs for an HP notebook I bought in June 2011).

The process required five blank DVD discs and it took me about an hour to create the discs (and to make sure I labeled what was what with a Sharpie marker).

Now granted, providing recovery discs with every computer sold can be an expensive proposition for a computer manufacturer, but it is grossly unfair to pass on that cost to the consumer, especially knowing that most purchasers will either be unaware that they need to make the discs or not having the time to produce them.

IMO if manufacturers and sellers are not going to supply the recovery discs, then they should provide them for free whenever customers contact the company requesting the discs (or seeking repair solutions).

[walt1944]

03:01 PM on 01/04/2012

Now how does everyone think Microsoft got to be so BIG and so WEALTHY???

By destroying competition and squeezing every last dime out of you, THAT'S HOW!!!!!!

[PenguinLinux]

03:03 PM on 01/04/2012

Don't make Lil Stevie toss a CHAIR at you for spreading the truth now.....

[six seven]

03:07 PM on 01/04/2012

Um. Microsoft is not in competition with Comet. Comet is a reseller of products, some of which contain Microsoft software.

How many dimes have you lost to MS?

[Bruckley]

02:50 PM on 01/04/2012

gotta squeeze out every last dollar.......

[pepper1311]

02:48 PM on 01/04/2012

Buy a MAC and use parallels or fusion or free boot camp. Now you have both.

[PenguinLinux]

03:05 PM on 01/04/2012

...or get twice or more the PC at less than half the cost of a Mac by building your own PC, tossing Linux and VirtualBox on it followed by loading Windows into a VM. Store an exported VM appliance and all personal files on an external hard drive.

[Chucktheman]

02:29 PM on 01/04/2012

I think Microsoft should be in the position of having to explain why it forces people to activate their OS within a deadline or have it flagged as not genuine even when it is legit. If all e books did this people would lose access to their own books as well. All OS discs should be provided with the computer no matter how much or little the consumer chooses to modify thier system. This is the age of gaming computers, with HDDs growing in size and affordability and video cards,and accessories getting cheaper everyday. This practice has hindered growth of a lot of start up businesses and has kept some people from upgrading their own sysytems out of fear or losing their OS.

[taylor316]

02:42 PM on 01/04/2012

The process is to help curb the insane amount of piracy in the world, especially in Asia. Over 100 million computer are estimated to have pirated Windows and those costs are passed on to you and me. If ebooks were so valuable and pirated, they would have the same nonsense policies too.

The reason why computers no longer have those discs is because consumers have demanded that computers be sold below manufacturing costs so all of those "frills" have been cut out. Think about that the next time you go buy one of those $399 laptops. The store loses about a hundred bucks on the laptop in the hopes you buy accessories or services to go with it.

[PenguinLinux]

02:44 PM on 01/04/2012

I wholeheartedly agree with you on every point made there.

Although not the solution for every individual, company, or situation, Linux has served me and many others very well. Everything has it's pros and cons though. OSes included.

[drumz]

02:51 PM on 01/04/2012

I agree too but you crack me up constantly showing your infatuation with an OS.