Microsoft files piracy suit in Minneapolis

Microsoft filed a software-piracy lawsuit Thursday against two Minneapolis-area resellers for the alleged distribution of counterfeit and infringing Microsoft software. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota. The company also announced that it will receive more than $162,000 in settlements and judgments stemming from legal actions it has taken against four Minnesota-based resellers for the alleged distribution of counterfeit software over the past two years. The 21.2 percent software piracy rate in Minnesota means that more than one in five software applications in the state are pirated. According to International Planning and Research, in 1999 software piracy cost the state more than 2,302 jobs and more than $235.7 million in combined wages, tax revenues and retail sales of business-software applications.

Edward Moyer Senior Editor

Edward Moyer is a senior editor at CNET and a many-year veteran of the writing and editing world. He enjoys taking sentences apart and putting them back together. He also likes making them from scratch. ¶ For nearly a quarter of a century, he's edited and written stories about various aspects of the technology world, from the US National Security Agency's controversial spying techniques to historic NASA space missions to 3D-printed works of fine art. Before that, he wrote about movies, musicians, artists and subcultures.

Credentials

• Ed was a member of the CNET crew that won a National Magazine Award from the American Society of Magazine Editors for general excellence online. He's also edited pieces that've nabbed prizes from the Society of Professional Journalists and others.

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Edward Moyer

Jan. 2, 2002 4:43 p.m. PT