Suits in Northern California Aimed at Protecting Legitimate Sellers and Unsuspecting Buyers on eBay
WASHINGTON, Feb. 13 LAWFUEL – Legal Announcements — The Software &
Information Industry Association (SIIA) announced today it has filed the
largest round of lawsuits since launching its auction site anti-piracy
program two years ago. SIIA filed nine separate suits in the US District
Court for the Northern District of California, on behalf of members Adobe
Systems Incorporated and Symantec Corporation. The lawsuits are part of
SIIA’s comprehensive program to battle rampant auctioning of pirated
software.
Seven suits were filed today: SIIA, on behalf of Adobe, charged Edward
Sarkisov of Van Nuys, CA; John Baptiste of Hurst, TX; Brandon Roberts of
Canyon Lake, TX; Don Farr of Redmond, WA; Beverly Johnson & John Baker of
Chicago, IL; Brandon Perkins of Corpus Christ, TX and John Baker of
Palatine, IL with knowingly selling illegal copies of Adobe(R) PhotoShop(R) CS3 and other software products on eBay.
These suits are in addition to two suits filed against eBay sellers two weeks ago. The first of these charges that Corey C. Ressler of Hamilton, New Jersey knowingly sold pirated copies of Adobe Photoshop CS3 software.
The second charges Joshua McClymonds and associates with selling Symantec
pcAnywhere 11.0 Host and Remote, pcAnywhere 10.5 Host and Remote and Norton Utilities 8.0 for Macintosh with the same type of piracy.
“SIIA has declared war against those who continue to sell pirated
software on auction sites such as eBay,” says Keith Kupferschmid, SVP of
SIIA’s Anti-Piracy Division. “Our goal is to give illegal software sellers a rude awakening, so that unsuspecting software buyers and legitimate
sellers are protected. For too long, auction sellers have been able to sell pirated software while risking only the removal of their auction. SIIA has upped the ante by bringing those who pirate software to justice in court.”
The nine suits represent the most significant legal action SIIA has
taken since launching its Auction Litigation Program, which monitors
popular online auction sites, identifies individuals or groups selling
pirated software and sues those pirates on behalf of the association’s
member companies. The program has led to successful prosecutions of eBay
pirates and OEM software sellers, such as the defendants in the Symantec,
et al. v. Chan et al. case several months ago, who were reselling OEM,
unbundled, counterfeit and other copies of software not authorized for
resale.
“Online auctioning of pirated software hurts both business and
consumers,” said Scott Bain, litigation counsel. “When consumers buy cheap, illegal software, they get no support and often find they’ve spent good
money on bad software. In addition to taking legal action against software pirates, SIIA is giving consumers tools to help them fight back.”
The SIIA Auction Litigation Program is part of a continuing program to work with buyers and sellers on auction sites to get the word out that
pirated software is bad for both ends of the sale. Sellers can be
prosecuted and buyers can be stuck with viruses, no technical support and
no recourse. SIIA’s Don’t Get Mad, Get Even Campaign offers a way for
purchasers to strike back — they report the illegal sale, provide proof
(disks) and receive money back to buy legal copies. (See
http://www.siia.net/piracy/dgmge.asp for details.)
Additional new programs for auction-site buyers include software buying guides and a certification program for software sellers (Certified Software Resellers) to help steer consumers of auctioned software to sellers who have promised to sell only legal software. These programs represent SIIA’s full-frontal assault on auction piracy.
About SIIA
The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is the principal trade association for the software and digital content industry. SIIA
provides global services in government relations, business development,
corporate education and intellectual property protection to more than 800
leading software and information companies. For further information, visit
http://www.siia.net.
