BSA cracks down on £12m worth of pirated software on online auction sites

One of the many warnings that those fighting anti-piracy have given is to widen the focus to include online auction sites.

As traditional means of selling and buying counterfeit products become complemented with online options including auction sites and peer-to-peer and groups fighting piracy have been forced to extend their activities.

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The latest to report it has fought back is the Business Software Alliance (BSA), which has terminated 18,000 auctions that were selling 45,000 items of pirated software for a total of £12m.

Neil MacBride, vice president, anti-piracy and general counsel, BSA, said that buying online was anonymous and gave some buyers the feeling that intellectual property theft was a "victimless crime".

"Whilst many would not dream of shoplifting a music CD or package of software from a store, they are willing to go online to seek out copies of what is clearly illegal software. Ignorance is not an excuse - businesses should be making basic checks to ensure that what they are buying is authentic," he said.

In the past Microsoft has been particularly active taking down auctions that were selling pirated software and last year issued a number of writs against sellers on eBay.