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Did Microsoft Flirt With Piracy?
Complaints about open-source software policy reveal piracy rap
in France.
Kim Zetter, special to PCWorld.com
Thursday, May 09, 2002
While Microsoft cracks down on software pirates the world
over, the software giant itself was quietly convicted of
piracy charges in France last fall--and the case, while
supposedly under appeal, may cost the company some business.
The French division of Microsoft is facing a fine of about
$422,000 for illegal use of another company's source code in
an animation program called Softimage 3D. The program has been
used to create such films as The Matrix, Men in Black, and
Star Wars. But the dispute itself was cited by a governmental
buyer who contends Microsoft should not complain about pirates
when it is guilty of the same transgression. Microsoft did not
respond to requests for comment.
Borrowed Code
The issue started in 1995 when Microsoft France purchased
Softimage, a Canadian company that developed the 3D CGI
animation program Softimage 3D. The acquired company was
accused of illegally lifting source code from a proprietary
program called Character, developed by the owners of Syn'x
Relief, a company near Paris.
In 1994, Softimage had negotiated with Syn'x about integrating
parts of the Character program into Softimage 3D. But the deal
fell through when Softimage demanded all rights to the code,
according to a report in PC World Malta. In 1995, when Syn'x
severed its relationship with Microsoft-Softimage, the company
assured Syn'x that it had removed "some or all" of Character
from its software. But Syn'x charges that Microsoft-Softimage
removed only one part of the code, and retained eight other
functions that Character's developers had registered with the
French National Intellectual Property Institute.
After Syn'x sent two letters to Softimage and Microsoft
demanding the functions be removed, the company filed suit. In
1998, Microsoft sold Softimage to Avid Technologies but
remained responsible for the legal infringements of its former
wholly owned subsidiary.
Although Syn'x eventually fell into bankruptcy as a result of
the case, the program's authors continued their fight. Last
September the Commercial Court of Nanterre, France, awarded
Syn'x the judgment for damages and interest. Microsoft has
vowed to appeal the decision.
Sales Pitch Rebuffed
Microsoft's brush with piracy in France came to light only
this week. The case was overshadowed at the time by the focus
on the September 11 terrorist attacks. But recently a Peruvian
congressman raised the issue in regard to a Microsoft
contract.
Dr. Edgar David Villanueva Nu?ez corresponded in April with
Microsoft's general manager in Peru over proposed legislation
there that would require any software used by the Peruvian
government to be open source (or "free software," as it's
referred to in Peru). Microsoft representatives protested the
plan, writing the congressman that producing open-source
software makes a software company vulnerable to piracy of its
intellectual property by competitors. If Peru mandates the use
of open-source software by government agencies, it "would
establish discriminatory and noncompetitive practices in the
contracting and purchasing" of software by public bodies,
Microsoft stated.
Nu?ez was apparently not persuaded. He replied to Microsoft:
"The inclusion of the intellectual property of others in works
claimed as one's own is not a practice that has been noted in
the [open-source] software community; whereas, unfortunately,
it has been in the area of proprietary software." He cited
specifically Microsoft's conviction by the Commercial Court of
France, "for violation of intellectual property (piracy, to
use the unfortunate term that your firm commonly uses in its
publicity)."
Meanwhile, Microsoft remains one of the most outspoken critics
of piracy, aggressively pursuing violators and urging
authorities to crack down on anyone who illegally copies its
software. The company even went so far as to include an
Activation Wizard in Windows XP, which prevents customers from
loading a single copy of XP onto more than one PC. The company
amended the policy after user outcry.
