CAIRO: Technology leviathan Microsoft sued eight software resellers last week for breaching copyright rules, including one in Egypt that held hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of pirated goods garnered largely through the state's PC for Every Home Initiative, according to the company's regional office. Karim Ramadan, general manager of Microsoft Egypt, said the lawsuit is part of a global anti-piracy plan launched by its parent company Microsoft Corporation. Only one Egyptian company has been implicated so far, he said, though more could follow. "This is something we've known about for quite a while, Ramadan said. About a year and a half ago, the company grew suspicious when Egyptian code numbers were being registered in the United States. After a yearlong investigation, they presented their findings to local authorities. With the state's help, they entered one of the vendors' sites on April 30, exposing a cache of bootlegged and unauthorized software worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, he said. Through state-brokered deals for projects like the PC For Every Home Initiative, which aims to make computers affordable to Egypt's many poor, some Egyptians are able to buy software at below average prices. Some vendors attempt to cash in by reselling this software at market prices in North America, Ramadan said. According to information technology news source Channel Web, dealers in Egypt and elsewhere also peddle volume-licensed software, versions often used by large institutions that allow many installations to use a single product key, as retail. "Obviously this is not how we want our resellers to operate, said Ramadan. While Microsoft has struggled to keep pace with Google and other players in online sectors over recent years - takeover talks with search engine rival Yahoo! collapsed last week - it has retained its traditional supremacy in the software market, where it enjoys near-monopoly on operating system and "productivity software. But as the firm has expanded overseas, it has been plagued by piracy of its Office, Windows and other programs. In Egypt, bootleg sales were 63 percent of those for legitimate goods last year, according to a study done by the International Data Corporation. The research group predicted this figure would climb to 68 percent next year. This year the Egyptian Consumer Protection Agency said copyright piracy in Egypt costs about LE 20 billion ($3.72 billion) annually; earlier, the International Intellectual Property Rights Alliance, a private anti-piracy watchdog, marked Egypt at 4.4 on its annual intellectual property rights index, about half a point lower than the world and Middle East regional averages. "If you look at the number, we're much better than Asia and other places where it might be 80 or 90 percent, Ramadan said. But, he added, Egypt's numbers are still far worse than many North American, European and Gulf nations, where piracy rates are often below 30 percent. Many problems stem from small businesses here, he said. Despite many state curbs, the information technology sector is ballooning rapidly, he said; piracy will grow in these sectors accordingly. "The majority of channels and resellers in Egypt are working in legal and very professional ways, he said. "We shouldn't let one company that exploited the special pricing affect the reputation of the rest. He pointed out that all software used by the state is legitimate. "I think the government has done a super job legalizing itself, he said.
