

Microsoft sues UK retailer Comet for selling over 94k counterfeit Windows CDs - m4tt
http://thenextweb.com/microsoft/2012/01/04/microsoft-sues-uk-retailer-comet-for-allegedly-selling-over-94000-counterfeit-windows-cds/

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VonLipwig
The story is misleading. It say's that Comet sold 94k counterfeit Windows
CD's.

Comet seem to say that as manufacturers stopped packaging computer's with CD's
they decided to make their own.

Assuming this is true. Each computer had a valid Windows license. Comet
decided to burn the CD's itself so users didn't have to try to make their own
recovery disks.

I don't seem the harm. I mean.. users can make their own recovery disc's
anyway can't they? Comet was just saving them a step?

~~~
xd
I think the problem is, comet where selling the cds. I'd be curious to know
for how much.

~~~
Tyrannosaurs
That's not what Comet are saying. They're providing them as recovery CDs to
people purchasing machines with Windows installed.

That said there is a question whether they were providing them free or at a
cost.

~~~
awa
According to another article Comet did charge for these CDs

"There was a number of disks made, on which there was a cost and Comet charged
this to the customer."

[http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/04/us-microsoft-
idUST...](http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/04/us-microsoft-
idUSTRE8030PQ20120104)

------
m4tt
Comet has issued a response to the lawsuit:

“Comet has sought and received legal advice from leading counsel to support
its view that the production of recovery discs did not infringe Microsoft’s
intellectual property.

“Comet firmly believes that it acted in the very best interests of its
customers. It believes its customers had been adversely affected by the
decision to stop supplying recovery discs with each new Microsoft Operating
System based computer. Accordingly Comet is satisfied that it has a good
defence to the claim and will defend its position vigorously.”

I have updated the article to reflect this.

~~~
macca321
Well I bloody hate it when you go round to fix your uncle's PC and then ask
for the recovery CD and there isn't one because MS didn't want him to have
one. Go Comet!

~~~
cooldeal
>because MS didn't want him to have one

I thought the PC manufacturers were the ones that used to give out recovery
discs and not MS?

~~~
mjhall
They were, but my most recent experience has been that Windows will offer to
make one for you on the first boot of a new machine.

------
andyking
Comet is largely insolvent and has recently been sold for a token £2 to a
"retail turnaround" outfit called OpCapita:
[http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/business-
news/kesa_s...](http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/business/business-
news/kesa_sees_few_signs_of_festive_cheer_on_high_street_1_4040772)

You expect this sort of thing if you go to the Bowlers computer fair, but not
at Comet!

~~~
UK-Al05
Oh man I used to go that fair when I was young with my dad, buying the latest
upgrades for my computer so i can play the latest games. There was a lot of
pirating as you say. I haven't really been for 10 years, since everything's
online now and i'm not really into hardware anymore. Memories.

------
alexchamberlain
So, was Comet burning a recovery disc on behalf of their customers? Therefore,
you need a Windows machine for the disc to recover? Doesn't every IT tech
carry a recovery disc in their wallet in case of an emergency?

Think I've missed something and the title seems a little misleading. Comet
haven't been selling dodgy Windows knockoffs, just giving their (non-techy)
customers a way to recover their (expensive) PC when (not if) it goes wrong.

~~~
dan1234
The problem seems to be that they haven't been giving their customers these
discs, but selling them.

~~~
alexchamberlain
How much for?

It would be reasonable for them to charge a small fee for the disc and
burning, as long as they made it clear the customer didn't have to buy it from
them and that they could make this same CD at home.

I think Microsoft need to defend their IP, but not at the expense of a
business trying to provide a genuine customer service. A conversation, rather
than a court filing, may have been more appropriate in this case, especially
as Comet has no money.

~~~
dan1234
I think Microsoft need to get convince the manufacturers that not providing
any physical recovery medium is not acceptable.

IMHO, a recovery disc or USB drive should be supplied as standard, as part of
the Windows licence.

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hellweaver666
Comet are a shady bunch... they're well known over here for selling extended
warranties that they refuse to honor. I've been stung by it myself but
stupidly didn't do the research until it was too late.

~~~
blasterford
Sorry to say it, but if you buy an extended warranty on anything you're
wasting your money. The whole 'extended warranty' business is how retailers
make their money, but are a complete scam. Hardly anything goes wrong these
days, and the price of the extended warranty is far far higher than the risk
of it going wrong.

~~~
Deestan
It _can_ work, though. Some retailers do it properly.

I have had use for it for a printer and a portable CD player. The extra
warranty was about +10% of the product price, and they said it covered
"anything, including kids dropping it on the floor or you spilling coffee on
it".

Unsurprisingly, the CD player lid stopped working because the kids managed to
knock it off a shelf. I took it back to the outlet and got a new one with no
paperwork or questions asked.

A few months later the printer broke down because my hamster defecated
severely into the paper feeder mechanism. This, too, was replaced with no cost
to me.

~~~
blasterford
> and they said it covered "anything, including kids dropping it on the floor
> or you spilling coffee on it".

That should raise a giant red flag. Unless you're extremely careless and don't
look after things, you're paying for other peoples carelessness.

~~~
Deestan
Or I could think of it as gambling that enough other people either 1) are
lucky, 2) don't bother with the return ("I don't really need it/want
another.") or 3) forget about the return.

But, I don't think of it in terms of how much money I "save" by breaking
stuff.

I pay the extra cost and try to be careful. What I get back is Less Worry. If
the thingy breaks down, I get a new thingy. That's worth money to me.

The alternative is to handle the risk myself, and saving the 10%s into a
"surprise expense account" to use when things break down. I'm convinced I
don't have the discipline for that - both managing it and not using the money
for other expenses.

~~~
blasterford
A recent survey found that something ridiculous like 0.5% of TVs break down
within 5 years. Yet people are paying out a lot of money for extended
warranties on them.

It's a matter of cost vs hassle as you say though I guess. For me, if I have
10 electronic gadgets and one blows up, it's not really a big deal, because I
can buy a new one with the money I saved by not having extended warranties on
all 10 items.

------
Ctech237
Unfortunately this seems to be common in the UK. If you go to
<http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk> they do the same thing. When you add a laptop
to your basket they add a “Restore and Recovery Disk” to your order for £15
(~$24) even though laptops come with this CD sealed in the box or you can
create it from an image file on the laptop. When I questioned them via
telephone they quickly backed off and took it off the order.

~~~
aes256
The whole point of this lawsuit is that most manufacturers don't provide
recovery disks anymore; hidden recovery partitions are the norm these days.

Comet apparently took it upon themselves to burn these disks for their
customers, and this seems to be what Laptops Direct are doing as well, albeit
charging for the privilege. If Laptops Direct have an agreement with
Microsoft, then fair enough.

The average computer user won't think to burn a recovery disk until it's too
late, hence the conundrum.

------
citricsquid
I could understand if their supplier had "tricked" them, but they willingly
produced and sold the counterfeit copies themselves? No wonder they're falling
apart.

------
guelo
I haven't bought a retail Windows PC in a while, is there not normally a
Windows CD included?

~~~
weego
If you buy a laptop you are pretty much guaranteed to have make a set of
recovery discs as your first task (before cleaning off all the trialware and
then trying to find a way to get rid of the hidden partition). Last time I did
it the recovery discs weren't even a full windows install as such.

I always buy PCs that are pre-built from components and usually get an OEM
disc of windows thrown in, but I gather if you buy a branded PC from a shop
you are in the same boat as the laptops.

