By Brian Krebs and David McGuire washingtonpost.com Staff Writers
Wednesday, February 18, 2004; 6:36 PM
Microsoft Corp. is borrowing a strategy from the recording industry's playbook, threatening to sue Internet users who download the pieces of its Windows operating system source code that were illegally posted online last week.
Microsoft sent letters to several Internet service providers (ISP) this week telling them that they have customers suspected of trading the stolen Windows 2000 and Windows NT code on peer-to-peer networks like Morpheus and Kazaa. The letters asked the ISPs to stop their subscribers from making the code available to others, a tactic similar to that pursued by Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) when it sought to force service providers to disclose the names of customers suspected of illegally trading music online.
"If you have downloaded and are making the source code available for downloading by others, you could be subject to severe civil and criminal penalties," the software giant said in an e-mail that it asked service providers to forward to suspected offenders on their networks. "Microsoft takes these issues very seriously, and will pursue legal action against individuals who take part in the proliferation of its source code."
Microsoft told users they could avoid legal headaches by deleting the source code file and telling the company where they got it.
Some observers said Microsoft's only recourse is to threaten lawsuits because copyright and trademark laws require companies to do everything within their legal rights to defend their trademarks and trade secrets.
"Microsoft could well find itself in a situation where they have to go after individuals," said Michael Cherry, lead analyst for Directions on Microsoft, a Kirkland, Wash., company that tracks Microsoft's business trends. "Any action Microsoft takes is going to be driven by what the law requires them to do to protect their intellectual property interests."
Microsoft must be "alert to protect their intellectual property online even though once something is made available online it can move quickly and get out very far," said Steven Metalitz, senior vice president of the International Intellectual Property Alliance.
Suing people suspected of trading the code would not solve the problem, but it could send the message to other would-be pirates to avoid breaking the law, Metalitz said.
Microsoft's reasons for wanting to stop the code from spreading on the Internet are twofold: The Windows operating system is the most popular in the world, with more than 90 percent of the world's computers running one of its versions. Losing its proprietary grip on the code could lead to an increase in software piracy that could hurt the company's bottom line, though Microsoft has said that not enough code was released to recreate the operating system.
On top of that, Microsoft suffers from an image problem when it comes to security. The company so far this year has released more than half-a-dozen security patches for Windows and its Internet Explorer to mend security holes that allow hackers to infect computers with harmful viruses and take control of them. Release of the source code could reveal more flaws to hackers and security experts, giving the company another public relations black eye.
