Ouch again! I know who that is in Palmira too.

Horseheads business owner denies pirating software.

By G. Jeffrey Aaron
jaaron@stargazette.com
Star-Gazette
December 6, 2006

Bit Bucket Computers in Horseheads has been named in a copyright infringement lawsuit filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Rochester by Microsoft Corp.

According to court papers, Bit Bucket, located at 703 S. Main St., is accused of violating nine of Microsoft's registered copyrights and seven trademarks. The software programs involved in the civil action include familiar titles such as Access 2003, Office Outlook 2003 and Office Word 2003.

Microsoft is seeking statutory damages that will be determined by the court, the profits Bit Bucket derived from the sales of the pirated software and attorney fees.

John Cecce, Bit Bucket's owner, denied any wrongdoing and described the charges as an example of the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant "throwing its weight around."

"Microsoft has made certain allegations against us and I believe those allegations will be found without basis when my attorney mounts a vigorous defense," Cecce said.

Cecce also said that on the advice of his attorney he would have no further comments. Bit Bucket, which builds and sells computer systems for home and office use, has 20 days to file its answer to the complaint.

The case against Bit Bucket is one of 30 copyright and trademark infringement lawsuits Microsoft filed Monday in various district courts around the country. Nine of those cases involve computer system and software vendors that are located in New York. Six of those involve New York City-area vendors. The remaining three involve businesses in Horseheads, Palmyra and Utica.

Microsoft has a national program in place to locate and identify pirated copies of its software programs, said Mary Jo Schrade, a senior attorney with the company. It focuses on raising awareness of the risks to consumers from counterfeit software programs and trying to address piracy, which is costing the industry "billions of dollars" each year.

"But what people don't think about is it goes beyond the (manufacturer)," Schrade said. "There are a lot of honest companies that also lose money to pirates. We picked some areas for enforcement where we have had concerns in the past, and New York is one of those areas where we've seen a lot of piracy."

Schrade said Microsoft uses investigators posing as ordinary consumers to purchase computer software packages from a suspect vendor and send the items to Microsoft, where they are examined by the company's engineers. If counterfeiting is discovered, the company sends a cease-and-desist letter to the vendor. If the practice continues, Microsoft seeks legal remedies, she said.

Using the scenario described above, Microsoft learned that Bit Buckets sold a computer system to an undercover shopper in February that contained a pirated copy of Windows XP Pro software.

Although the company sent a cease-and-desist letter to the vendor later that month, a second investigator purchased a computer system loaded with two pirated programs -- Microsoft's Window's XP Pro and Office 2003 Pro software -- in August, the complaint alleges.

Microsoft's size, in terms of marketing reach and available products, makes it especially vulnerable to copyright infringements, said Guy Amisano, president of Salient Technologies. The Big Flats software firm develops online analytical processing software programs that can be used by business and government.

Amisano said he regularly receives e-mail solicitations from questionable vendors hawking Microsoft products.

"We use a copyright to protect our codes and we never let the codes out without hardware protection. The codes are also serialized so we know who's using it, and since we're a smaller operation, (pirating) isn't much of a problem," Amisano said.

Consumers not targeted

Microsoft will provide consumers affected by pirated software with a letter they can use to obtain a refund or get the software they should have received. To be eligible, consumers must report the incident to the company's anti-piracy hot line at 800/785-3448.

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