Felix Salmon debunks recent claims of a $500 million seizure of counterfeit software, demonstrating why the claims are enormously overstated.
Deconstructing Counterfeit Software Claims
August 1, 2007
Share this post
One Comment

Law Bytes
Episode 179: Peter Menzies on Why the CRTC Feels Broken Right Now
byMichael Geist

September 26, 2023
Michael Geist
September 18, 2023
Michael Geist
July 24, 2023
Michael Geist
Search Results placeholder
Recent Posts
What the CRTC’s New Registration Requirements Mean for Regulating Everything from Online News Services to Podcast Providers
The Law Bytes Podcast, Episode 179: Peter Menzies on Why the CRTC Feels Broken Right Now
The Documents Don’t Lie, Even If It Appears Pablo Rodriguez Does: ATIP Reveals His Office Was Informed Within Minutes of CMAC/Marouf Termination Notice
The Need for Truthful Accountability: What ATIP Records Tell Us About Pablo Rodriguez and Canadian Heritage Funding an Anti-Semite
Why Industry Minister Champagne Broke the Bill C-27 Hearings on Privacy and AI Regulation in Only 12 Minutes
Counterfeit vs Unauthorised, Perfect Cop
Let’s also debunk some semantic abuse going on with respect to counterfeits and copies of digital works.
A counterfeit is an often inferior product manufactured at lower cost (for profits at a very competitive price) designed to deceive the purchaser that it represents the product and manufacturer they are familiar with and expecting.
When people purchase software, they care little whether the acetate disks will last 5 years or 50 years, as long as they are buying MS software made by MS.
There are many people very happy to buy unauthorised copies of MS software, as long as they aren’t being deceived. Such copies are not counterfeits, but unauthorised copies. Being digital, the copy is perfect, interchangeable with the original and just as good.
There’s a comparable issue concerning imitation Gucci bags or imitation Rolex watches, as opposed to counterfeit Gucci bags or Rolex watches. As long as the customer is being sold an imitation rather than a counterfeit, they are quite happy to make the purchase (paying according to their value).
Imitations unavoidably infringe the original manufacturer’s trademark, but that doesn’t mean the imitation is a counterfeit.
Unfortunately, because counterfeiting is plainly unethical, whereas copyright infringement is arguably not, the former term is extended as an umbrella term to include the latter – and thus help deceive the public that a greater crime is being committed than is actually the case.