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Microsoft hopes to make an example of Christopher Fazendin. But judging from the hundreds of messages posted to a variety of Usenet groups requesting and exchanging Fazendin's Office 97 crack, the software giant's lawyers are trying to stop a tidal wave with a broom.
On Monday, Microsoft filed a civil suit against Fazendin, charging him with copyright infringement for a software crack he wrote that allowed those with a trial copy of Office 97 to turn back an encoded clock and use the software beyond its expiration date.
Distributed by Microsoft as part of a promotion with Kinko's, the try-before-you-buy Office 97 was available for US$4.99. This CD-ROM, which included Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, allowed consumers to run the programs for 90 days. After that time, the software was to cease functioning, leaving customers the choice to purchase the shrink-wrapped version, priced between $300 to $500.
Fazendin posted his handiwork on his Web site in February, and word of the program spread throughout the warez community. In filing the lawsuit, Microsoft wants to put a stop to Fazendin's distribution of the crack and to recover the losses incurred as a result. Fazendin's site was down at the time this article published, and Fazendin did not respond to Wired News' requests for an interview.
Microsoft isn't backing down. "The Internet doesn't have a license to be a safe haven for illegal activity," said Jim Lowe, corporate attorney for Microsoft.
Software piracy brings big losses to developers each year. The Software Publishers Association estimated that developers lost $13.1 billion worldwide in pirated business applications in 1995. But to Sandra Sellers, the losses are more than financial. "It's also that half of a company's sales are going out the back door," said Sellers, SPA vice president of intellectual property and education.
Sellers points to the growing rate of piracy - 46 percent in 1995 - as cause for concern. This means that companies sold 54 percent of their software legally, only to lose nearly the same amount due to piracy.
And the Internet is contributing to the rise of piracy with widespread distribution of cracks on Usenet, IRC channels, and Web and FTP sites. Sellers said the SPA has initiated a program that, among other things, asserts that ISPs have a responsibility to help protect intellectual property.
"They're monitoring traffic anyway. They should be looking at the reports with infringement in mind," said Sellers.
In the SPA's view, ISPs need to play cop and take more responsibility for warez stored on their servers. As monitors, ISPs should look for anything questionable, such as transfers of large files, a spike in traffic to a Web site, or unusual and hidden directories, Sellers said.
But large files can be anything, including graphics, video, or audio files. Further, files such as Fazendin's are tiny, the size of bug fixes. And some crackers have taken to collecting serial numbers for software programs - codes that are included in shrink-wrapped packages of software and are necessary to legally register the software and obtain technical support - and typing them up and posting them to Web sites and Usenet.
Still, Sellers believes ISPs are pivotal in the move to curb piracy on the Internet. So does Microsoft. As part of its lawsuit, the company has subpoenaed the router and server logs from Fazendin's ISP, Minnesota-based Starnet Communications. Lowe said the information will be necessary to determine the amount of losses Microsoft has incurred from Fazendin's alleged activity.
When asked whether the company might also use that information to go after those who downloaded the crack from Fazendin's site, Lowe replied, "It's an option."
