Microsoft Settles With MPO In Counterfeiting Probe

Microsoft on Tuesday said it has reached a multi-million-dollar settlement with The MPO Group, a disk-copying company linked to the distribution of thousands of counterfeit copies of Microsoft server software.

In July 2003, the French company's Thailand plant made 20,000 copies of Exchange and SQL Server disks for a distributor that turned out to have forged documentation showing it had a license from Microsoft. In the ensuing year, the software maker's anti-piracy team and law enforcement officials recovered some of the disks and traced them back to the MPO facility.

MPO acknowledged that production of the disks led to copyright and trademark infringement, and was a breach of its replication agreement with Microsoft, the software maker said. MPO agreed to a multi-million-dollar settlement, and cooperated in the investigation. Details of the agreement weren't disclosed.

"We are pleased to have settled this case with The MPO Group so quickly and look forward to an ongoing relationship with them," David Finn, associate general counsel for Microsoft, said in a statement.

MPO has tightened it security measures as a result of the scam that led to the illegal disk production, Microsoft said.