20 April, 2005 (original story...)
Symantec reported Wednesday it won a $3.1-million judgment against software counterfeiter Sam Jain for violating intellectual property rights.
Mr. Jain used browser pop-ups and spam to mislead computer users into buying bootlegged Symantec software at deeply discounted prices. The U.S. District Court for the central California district ruled against Mr. Jain for violating Symantec’s intellectual property rights by selling copies of Symantec’s Norton SystemWorks, Norton AntiVirus, Norton Ghost, and pcAnywhere software.
But Symantec had other concerns. "Of all the software piracy cases we've been involved with so far, this one in particular posed a number of serious threats to our customers and consumers at large," said William Plante, Symantec's director of corporate security.
Symantec gets as much of half of its consumer revenue from subscription sales each year. Mr. Jain's scam conned consumers into believing their subscriptions need to be updated. Customers already face a lot of confusion about antivirus software and bootleggers who pose false advertising make it harder for Symantec to protect its revenue stream
This isn't the first case in which Symantec has had to defend its software. Last June, the company won a settlement from Papa B Enterprises. In December 2003, it won $3 million from Maryland Internet Marketing for selling counterfeit software.
