US lands huge bootleg MS haul

Disrupts major counterfeiter

American law officials have impounded $60m worth of bootlegged Microsoft goods - the biggest seizure of counterfeit software in the US. The seizure interrupted a "major counterfeit software distribution pipeline", Microsoft said in a press release.

The counterfeiters shipped the bootleg software (very good fakes, MS says) from Taiwan and into the US through the port of Los Angeles. But they had been spotted - the US Customs Service kept them under surveillance for 18 months in a undercover investigation. A Taiwanese legal immigrant was arrested.

A partial list of the seized good include

• 31,000 counterfeit copies of Windows ME and Windows 2000 Professional
  
• 4,300+ counterfeit Windows XP manuals
  
• 93,000+ counterfeit certificate of authenticity (COA) labels for Windows Me, Windows 2000, Windows 98 and Office 2000 Professional
  
• 25,000+ counterfeit End User License Agreements (EULAs) for various software products
  
• Thousands of jewel-case liners and packaging materials
  
• Several thousand counterfeit Windows 98 and Windows NT manuals, including cover stock
  
• Thousands of counterfeit registration cards
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