Sony, Lenovo and Acer sued after shipping pirated software
The manufacturers included software at the the Chinese government's behest, but the software in question was plagiarized. And now the pain begins, as the swiped software's creator, Solid Oak, now files suit here in the U.S. The clone software even tries to access Solid Oak's server for updates.
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treadwm on Sony, Lenovo and Acer sued aft...
"It's also not unusual to pre-setup computers with software that government agenc..."
dculberson on Sony, Lenovo and Acer sued aft...
"I don't think you guys are lawyers. Pretty sure a strong case can be made that ..."
Jon Anderson on Sony, Lenovo and Acer sued aft...
"As far as those companies could tell, the software was probably legitimate softw..."
bywire on Sony, Lenovo and Acer sued aft...
"Of course it is their fault. They installed and sold someone else's software. Wo..."
phisrow on Sony, Lenovo and Acer sued aft...
"@TRNCK: Easier for Solid Oak to sue Sony, Lenovo, and Acer, corporations with a ..."
Trnck on Sony, Lenovo and Acer sued aft...
"I don't think the computer manufacturers is to blame for shipping the software. ..."
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Trnck
#1 – 10:16 AM July 4, 2009
I don't think the computer manufacturers is to blame for shipping the software. It's China's government to blame because they ordered the software to be installed.
phisrow
#2 – 10:47 AM July 4, 2009
@TRNCK: Easier for Solid Oak to sue Sony, Lenovo, and Acer, corporations with a substantial amount of business activity in the US, than for them to sue the Chinese government.
bywire
#3 – 7:28 PM July 4, 2009
Of course it is their fault. They installed and sold someone else's software. Would a reasonable person expect them to look into the origin of the software that the government instructed/requested them to install? That's a no-brainer.
But we can let them off the hook if we think it is OK for government to pick the winners and the losers. Let the government decide which of the little guys can be stepped on and crushed.
Jon Anderson
#4 – 3:41 PM July 5, 2009
As far as those companies could tell, the software was probably legitimate software the Chinese government owns. If the government gave them permission to install it, and there was nothing obvious about the software to show it was a modified version of a stolen product, I'm not sure how they were supposed to know there was anything illegal about it.
dculberson
#5 – 8:12 AM July 7, 2009
I don't think you guys are lawyers. Pretty sure a strong case can be made that Sony, Lenovo, and Acer f'ed up big time.
Imagine Sony shipping machines with pirated Windows versions on it. Is it plausible to say that they could not have known better? Uhh, no. Microsoft would eat them for breakfast.
treadwm
#6 – 9:03 AM July 7, 2009
It's also not unusual to pre-setup computers with software that government agencies already own. I've been directed to do that for our own state and federal government. They often have license agreements that are open-ended (not as common anymore) or have secured a very generous amount of licenses. If the Navy told me they already have the licenses and to just install the software, thats what I did.
I think its just a case of hitting the easiest target.