Microsoft hit with $2.4 million copyright suit in the Philippines

In an unusual situation for a company so vocal about protecting intellectual property rights, Microsoft is being sued for allegedly distributing material copyrighted by a Philippine college -- despite the fact that the material in question seems to have only been given to fellow educational professionals. Southeastern College in Pasay City is suing Microsoft and Microsoft Philippines for 100 million Filipino pesos ($2.4 million) for handing out at least 700 CDs in 2005 and 2006 containing the 379-page "SEC Microsoft Office XP Manual," which had been copyrighted by SEC director Conrad Mañalac in 2005 (although work on it reportedly began in 1999). Apparently 10,000 copies of this same manual had previously been licensed from the school by the company in 2004, and retitled for use in a program to train high school teachers. For its part, Microsoft Philippines denies having "improperly distributed additional copies of the curriculum," although it's a little unclear what the company's actual position is, with the following statement -- emailed to the Inquirer.net -- seeming to indicate that the primary concern right now is protecting the mothership: "They brought this matter to our attention a year ago and we worked hard to resolve it, but without success. For all intents and purposes, this is a purely local matter which does not involve Microsoft Corporation." Um, okay, whatever you say. We'll be interested to see if / how Redmond responds to this one...

[Thanks, Mark]

Read - Microsoft sued
Read - Microsoft issues response

[Matthew Hilario @ Dec 17th 2007 11:15AM]

Putanginang Micro!

[ScareyJ @ Dec 17th 2007 3:00PM]

Hey, wasn't Engadgets parents AOL Time Warner sued by EMI for copyright infringement a while back? Wasn't that a somewhat similar situation where the company's licensing agreement existed but not to the extent that Time Warner was trying to use it. Hmmm ... and M$ is the hypocrit here?

This is a no news item ... all the big companies have been sued (Time Warner, Microsoft, Apple, Red Hat, etc) over copyright infringement ... this is a case where they had a deal for 10,000 distros of one media and provided 700 more on another media thats in question. It'll go to court and handled ... this by no means appears to be a case where an 800lb gorilla is trying to win something for free. Stop looking at these events with a magnifying glass and yelling, "Big news!"

The fan boys from all sides unite like hyenas ... bring us real news with some meat to it.

[E71 @ Dec 17th 2007 6:44PM]

Something is amiss... Shouldn't it be Microsoft suing the Philippines for pirating their software... Looks like they got it backwards.

[Neal @ Dec 17th 2007 11:15AM]

Someone is looking to sue an entity with deep pockets?!?!

UNPOSSIBLE!

Seriously, are they bent that the copywright was infringed upon and looking at who actually did the distribution, or a company with a lot of money that will likely pay them to "begone" rather than fuss with lawsuits?

[IndiaTech @ Dec 17th 2007 12:45PM]

Kids... This is what happens when you use a pirated dictionary...

[Josef @ Dec 17th 2007 11:20AM]

Aha! Now, the rubber band is on the other claw!

[Rob @ Dec 17th 2007 11:24AM]

Arghhhhh. Got caught this time mate.
Lay your hands off me treasure Redmond.

Coming Soon to a theater near you: Microsoft's Pirates of the Pacific.

[kdawg @ Dec 17th 2007 11:24AM]

This is a start but the little guy doesnt win very often and this looks like they might loose this one, microsoft will walk in with its over paid attorney and take this to the cleaners but hey who knows schools have good attorneys too.

[Palmtree3000 @ Dec 17th 2007 7:05PM]

The philippines is the "little guy" how? They're a country...

[NNE @ Dec 17th 2007 11:28AM]

2.4 million is like $50 bucks to microsoft. They'll probably fight it just on principle, but paying it woujld be nothing to them.

[Rob @ Dec 17th 2007 11:32AM]

You've said it. If they decide to pay up all the time,then they'd set a precedence. However, if they fight back every time, then they remind everyone that MS has the power and will always win, wrong or right.

[cmonkey @ Dec 17th 2007 11:43AM]

No, to set an example, they should just buy the Phillipines. ;)

[boredtoday @ Dec 17th 2007 12:00PM]

@cmonkey: wow, is this comment racist or what? get over yourself imperial america.

[jazzfanatic @ Dec 17th 2007 12:44PM]

@boredtoday - Umm, I think you need to brush up on what racism means. His comment could be considered extremely nationalistic maybe, but really his comment wasn't serious.

[Jeebus @ Dec 17th 2007 12:43PM]

"wow, is this comment racist or what?"

Who mentioned race? Oh that's right. You did.

[Ty @ Dec 17th 2007 2:05PM]

For the record, Microsoft could probably buy the Phillipenes...

[cmonkey @ Dec 17th 2007 8:14PM]

Well, apparently its no longer enough to suffix an obvious joke with ";)". From now on, I'll be sure to wrap it in tags. erm...

[Student Driver @ Dec 17th 2007 11:41AM]

Man, if they only had DRM for printed paper this could have been avoided! It looks like a job for the might Sony...

[rndmnme @ Dec 17th 2007 11:42AM]

Microsoft counter sues for pirated copies of Windows for $2.4 Billion, with a B.

Out of court settlement is reached.

[gm76 @ Dec 17th 2007 11:45AM]

This is just too funny. The last time I visited this home country of mine, I saw shops plagued with bootleg video games and movies.

[uberfu @ Dec 17th 2007 11:46AM]

Yeah - they were paying $1 million per day in fines during those Anti-Trust proceedings a few years back_

But this still doesn't make much sense_ Seeing as how some company [or university] created a manual on how to do something with a Microsoft proudct for their locale_ I would think 98% of anything that goes into the manual is already copyrighted by Microsoft to begin with_

I'm not a Microsoft fan that much - BUT this is Basic Copyright 101_ How does one create a manual for XP without using any copyrighted material from XP and not requiring any consent from Microsoft in doing so_ Then after which they sue Microsoft_

[Backlin @ Dec 17th 2007 12:40PM]

This picture would actually be a pretty sweet Bootskin.

[Technex @ Dec 17th 2007 2:36PM]

It is isn't it?

[gino @ Dec 17th 2007 12:50PM]

i think the same happened to me... around 2004 i brought a desktop pc from Octagon computer store (legitimate seller and all that) that came with the then-new MS xp. the price for the software alone was around P15,000 (about $300). when the system was set up and the software installed, the MS genuine thingy said that my copy was invalid! after that i opted for a mac instead, NEVER went back to microsoft.

[zashima @ Dec 17th 2007 12:51PM]

i think the same happened to me... around 2004 i brought a desktop pc
from Octagon computer store (legitimate seller and all that) that came
with the then-new MS xp. the price for the software alone was around
P15,000 (about $300). when the system was set up and the software
installed, the MS genuine thingy said that my copy was invalid! after
that i opted for a mac instead, NEVER went back to microsoft.

[Olu O @ Dec 17th 2007 1:24PM]

and how many different user names are you currently using?? so far, i'm counting 2

[Evan @ Dec 17th 2007 1:06PM]

Whatever this manual is they expect about 3,500 bucks per copy licensed. That must be one hell of a manual for Office. Will it do my research papers for me?

[Rainier @ Dec 17th 2007 1:10PM]

Mabuhay!!!

[michaelportent @ Dec 17th 2007 1:10PM]

What? We're still talking about XP? Where's the class-action and piracy suits involving Vista? Woulda thought those would be along by now?

[redlukas @ Dec 17th 2007 3:36PM]

as he did not sell it, it is no problem. but when the college made an effort in putting the manual together, the work, not the content became intelectual propriety, i think and it was therefore illegal to make money out of it

[Liam Billington @ Dec 17th 2007 7:25PM]

Pot calling the kettle black comes to mind

[John @ Dec 18th 2007 12:09AM]

$2.4 million? I think that's what over at Microsoft they call an 'accounting error'.

[problematik @ Dec 18th 2007 12:12AM]

@ joseph

WHAAAAT???

[donald @ Dec 18th 2007 8:20AM]

am i the only one that read 100 million Filipino pesos ($2.4 million) as:

100 million Filipino pesos ($2.4 dollars)

????

ds

[aj @ Dec 18th 2007 12:08PM]

@donald, your math is right.