Thursday, 17 May 2007

Symantec Seeks USD 55 M in Piracy Lawsuits

Symantec has pointed fingers at eight companies calling them software pirates. The company is seeking an estimated USD 55 million in damages. The company wants to get compensation between USD 4 and 10 million per company in damages.

Scott Minden, Symantec’s director of legal affairs, said, "When we find out where a customer has purchased [pirated software] from, we can take appropriate action and make our own test purchases. Once we gather enough evidence – and that can take a year or two years or so – to take action, we do so". He added, "The main purpose [of the lawsuit] is to make sure that this counterfeit product doesn’t get out there, and to protect our customers from purchasing what they think is a Symantec product, but can ultimately subject the customer to problems with their computer."

According to the allegations, Symantec claimed counterfeit versions of its Norton SystemWorks, Norton AntiVirus, Norton Internet Security, pcAnywhere and Symantec AntiVirus Small Business Edition were sold.