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Microsoft India, with the help of local police, has made an anti piracy swoop on PC vendors in Kerala. The anti-piracy crackdown was provoked by the gross revenue fall for Microsoft India from the region with high computer literacy.
Raids were carried out on three dealers in Thiruvananthapuram and two in Kollam districts on Thursday. Early this week the team is said to have combed dealers in Trissur district too. In Kerala capital, at least 10 pirated software CDs were found. Prasant, managing partner of a computer peripheral sales firm, was detained for violation of the Indian Copyright Act. The crime, if proved, is liable to get a penalty as high as Rs 20 lakh.
Police sources told FE that the company had made the raids with permission from the respective city police commissioners. The dealers were also served notices, the company had claimed.
In fact, while police initiated the raids, Microsoft officials from New Delhi, identified as DC Sharma and Anand Banerjee, gave technical support.
Meanwhile, the Kochi-based IT Dealers Association is fuming at the Microsoft move. The vendors argue that it is companies like Microsoft which forced them to walk the wrong side of law, freely creating an appetite for its flagship software. "We are caught between the devil and the deep sea. Since PC margins are thin, we are forced to drive volumes. And it's an open secret that customer invariably expects a free download of latest Windows software," said a spokesman of IT Dealers Association.
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