In a unified move with Lithuania’s anti-piracy group LANVA, Microsoft has sued the operator of that country’s largest BitTorrent site LinkoManija, Torrent Freak is reporting.
Microsoft accuses LinkoManija operator Kestas Ermanas of distributing and assisting in the distribution of illegal copies of Office 2003 and 2007. LinkoManija is one of the 10 most visited sites in Lithuania.
The lawsuit appears to be a lot of show initially, as Lithuanian law has restrictions on such infringements and a maximum damages award is likely between $50,000 and $55,000.
In response to the demands from Microsoft, the assets of Kestas Ermanas and his company have been seized and associated bank accounts frozen.
Ermanas says that he is not at fault because he and his company no longer run the BitTorrent tracker as of last month. However, Ermanas likely is at least partially at fault because the infringements come from 2008 and 2009, when users of the service were initially being reported to the police for software copyright violations. Microsoft and others are currently pressing charges against 106 users who were reported to the police in November, one of which goes to trial later this month. |
