InternetSoftware Assoc. Goes to War on Piracy

Lawsuits planned as industry association looks to sellers on sites other than eBay.

In the murky online trade of pirated software, eBay may be the biggest marketplace, but it's not the only one. As it moves to more aggressively combat illegal sales of knockoff software, the Software Information and Industry Association (SIIA) plans to begin filing lawsuits against sellers operating on several of the smaller auction sites on the Web, according to Scott Bain, the association's litigation counsel who handles online auctions. Bain told InternetNews.com that the SIIA expects to issue its first lawsuits against non-eBay auction sellers in the coming weeks. Many eBay competitors have software categories on their sites, such as Overstock Auctions, ePier and eBid. Bain declined to name the sites that SIIA has been talking with, but emphasized that they have generally been cooperative. "We've had some very positive discussions and interactions with the competitors to eBay," Bain told InternetNews.com. "So far, we haven't filed any suits against those auction listings, but we're ramping up activity in that area." The SIIA's expansion of its litigation against individual sellers comes as the association is becoming increasingly exasperated with eBay for not doing enough to keep pirated software of its own marketplace. On behalf of its members, which include large software makers such as Oracle, Adobe and Apple, SIIA has filed and won lawsuits against dozens of eBay sellers, but Bain said the group is considering legal action against eBay itself... [ Read more on www.internetnews.com ]

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