eBay and Microsoft bullish on software piracy

Microsoft and eBay are boasting of considerable wins in the fight to clamp down on the vast amounts of illegal software being sold on the auction site.

eBay is one of the most prolific channels for the trade in illegal software but the two companies say they are recording major wins against the pirates, claiming to have removed 21,000 bogus software lots since August.

However, a look over the site's auction rooms reveals there is still some considerable way to go before the trade in illegal software is significantly dented.

Past research has suggested as much as 90 per cent of software sold on eBay may be pirated, and neither eBay or Microsoft was able to say what kind of bite out of that figure the 21,000 cancelled sales represents.

However, the onus for getting illegal sales closed down is very much on the software company to find and report those items being sold illegally and report it to eBay's VeRO programme (verified eBay rights owner).

silicon.com presented eBay with a number of lots offering illegal software but was told by an eBay spokesman the company would only act, even on clearly pirated software lots, "once registered rights owners contacted us and asked us to remove them from the site".

As such many members selling illegal software appear to favour quick sales to limit the chances of detection.

At the time of writing, searches by silicon.com revealed pirated versions of a number of popular software applications.

An ad for a copy of Adobe Photoshop, for example, advertised openly as having no box or manual and not being a holographic disc, states: "This item is for the purposes of back-up only and it is entirely the buyer's responsibility to own the original software."

The seller also boasts of having found a loophole to bypass eBay's laws on software sales. The ad states that the bidders will receive the CD containing the program free of charge but advises them they are only bidding on the plastic sleeve it will be delivered in and not the content of the CD.

The eBay spokesman told silicon.com such a tactic does not sidestep any laws and is in fact in contravention of eBay's rules for selling any recordable media.

The same seller has previously sold illegal versions of other Adobe applications, such as Illustrator and InDesign on eBay.

Other sellers claim the lack of box, manual and printed CD is a result of them being licensed to offer special budget 'no frills' versions of the software. Many hide behind similarly implausible stories about why the software may appear to be a little dubious.

The eBay spokesman told silicon.com: "All listings on eBay are written by our users and are unique. It is simply not feasible for eBay to monitor and check every item on our site. It is also impossible for eBay to be an expert in all of the many hundreds of thousands of different items offered for sale on our site."

He added that eBay has "no obligation to monitor its site for illegal content".