Microsoft raided Guatemala insurance office with police, lawsuit alleges

[Judi Lynn]

Source: South Florida Business Journal

Microsoft raided Guatemala insurance office with police, lawsuit alleges
Jun 17, 2013, 1:31pm EDT Updated: Jun 17, 2013, 1:51pm EDT
Paul Brinkmann Reporter- South Florida Business Journal

Microsoft raided a Guatemala insurance firm with local police officers to “extort” $70,000 in licensing fees from the company, a new lawsuit alleges.

The company, Seguros Universales SA of Guatemala City, alleged that Microsoft engaged in a pattern of “racketeering” to extort money from several related insurance companies in Guatemala.

Seguros described the April 2012 raid on its office in the downtown financial district of Guatemala City:

“Microsoft appeared with armed Guatemalan law enforcement officers and halted plaintiffs’ business operations. Microsoft then proceeded to extort Plaintiffs by demanding an on-the-spot agreement to pay $70,000 or Microsoft would remove all… servers containing ALL data and operational software.”

Read more: http://www.bizjournals.com/southflorida/blog/2013/06/microsoft-raided-guatemala-insurance.html

[formercia]

1. The Monsanto of Software

Time to consider Open-source software.

[marble falls]

2. Bill Gates gave a ton of money to W's elections and MS did, too.

[hughee99]

7. Yes, he also donated to Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid,

McCain in '98, Byron Dorgan, Roy Blunt, Pat Leahy, Maria Cantwell, Ted Kennedy, the DCCC, the DSCC, Jon Kyl, Kent Conrad, Ben Nelson, Robert Wexler, Tom Harkin, Jay Rockefeller, Darryl Issa, Mitch McConnell, and something called "Every Republic is Crucial". His total personal donations since 1986 are 418K with a majority going to various groups and committees.

Microsoft was facing all sorts of lawsuits in the 90's. Then he started more actively kicking in money to both sides (particularly the leadership), and the lawsuits seem to have largely gone away...

I'm not sure I'd consider a 1 time $2000 donation in 2003 to W is "a ton of money", and given that he's only spent 418K over 30 years, it would be tough to make the claim he's given a ton of money to any politician in particular.

[geek tragedy]

3. Would Microsoft really care about $70K so much to pull this kind of stunt? nt

[hunter]

5. To instill fear in other users...

... easy enough. You shake down the most visible shop on the street and the other shop keepers will fall in line.

[hunter]

4. Bad choice to use Microsoft products in your shop...

... especially without a Microsoft site license that covers every possible installation on the premises.

Funny, an insurance company ought to know all about "reading the fine print." I've had enough medical insurance claims denied or partially covered over "small print" issues to have learned that.

I don't use Microsoft products and if I had employees I wouldn't allow them to bring Microsoft products into my shop.

That probably means I'll always be a small fury mammal among giant corporate dinosaurs, but I'm okay with that.

[Buzz Clik]

6. Do we know if this is true?

[Dreamer Tatum]

12. It's an American company in Central America and Judi posted it.

So of course it's true.

[Judi Lynn]

14. If you've found any thing to suggest it's not, please do post it.

No reason to hold back, is there?

Do everyone a favor, and please set us all straight on this story. Don't be shy.

[Buzz Clik]

15. You gave us one side of a civil suit.

No doubt, there is some truth in there. But, lawyers tend to sensationalize at this stage.

So, the answer to my question is, "No, we have no idea how much of this is true,"

[sofa king]

8. Wait a minute....

Microsoft came in and demanded seventy grand or they would destroy all of the incriminating evidence?

Seems to me that telling them to fuck off would have saved the money and got them of the hook with the law.

[Buzz Clik]

16. Well, that's what their lawyer is telling us.

The truth is out there somewhere.

[L0oniX]

9. Pirated warez?

[meegbear]

10. Here's the obligatory "Get A Mac" reply ...

Get A Mac!

[Xithras]

11. BSA raids...err..."audits" happen right here in the U.S.

Your agreement to it is buried in the fine print of the shrinkwrap licenses from nearly every major software vendor out there. The BSA (Business Software Alliance) handles enforcement here in the U.S., and it's members include Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, Autodesk, IBM, and hundreds of other smaller software companies. They're unknown to most laypeople because they focus on businesses, and rarely (if ever) pursue individuals, but they're VERY well known to enterprise business IT departments.

Basically, these people walk into your business without warning (usually as a result of a tip...they pay cash to employees who turn in employers who cheat on their licenses) and ask to perform a license audit. If you refuse or throw them out, you're violating one of the terms of your shrink wrap license, and they'll hand you a notice revoking your license to use ANY BSA covered software. They'll usually send in an undercover person after that, and if they see any computers running Windows, OSX, or any other software they enforce for, they'll call up the local DA and push through a piracy raid with police help (running pirated software is a criminal offense just about everywhere). Once they audit and determine that you're still running pirated software, they'll give you two choices...you can pay their "penalty" and they'll license all of your software, or they'll have the police seize all of your computers as evidence and allow the criminal process to commence.

My current employer has a guy on staff who spends about half of his time managing software licensing for the company. If the SBA auditor shows up, he can pull the files to show them our license validity in seconds. Just about every major employer in America has someone similar on staff.

If you don't want to deal with this, run OSS software. If your business isn't running Linux, you've already agreed to this sort of thing.

[cprise]

13. K&R