- Simon Bailey of Australasian Computing & Bookkeeping Service has been gaveled with a $A424,000 Australian Federal Court consent judgement after Microsoft took the reseller to the task over allegations of software piracy.
Microsoft accused the South Australian reseller of advertising and selling pirated copies of Office 97 and Windows NT 4.0 to individuals and resellers through internet newsgroups.
In a press release Microsoft claimed it warned Bailey about the sale of counterfeit software in January 1999, and further investigations led to the court hearing.
Along with the fine the court ordered that Bailey pay Microsoft's costs of the proceedings.
Microsoft's corporate attorney Vanessa Hutley said the vendor is attempting to ensure consumers will be confident about buying software on the internet, thus any breach of software copyright on the internet is dealt with in such a fashion.