Best Buy's 'Geek Squad' Accused Of Software Piracy

[Deja Q]

http://www.informationweek.com/windows/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=185302574

:rofl:

The court order, issued Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Sam Sparks in Austin, Texas, stems from a copyright infringement lawsuit filed by Winternals Software LP, makers of ERD Commander 2005, a repair tool that boots a dead computer for system recovery.

The Winternals lawsuit accuses Best Buy – the nation's largest consumer electronics retail chain -- and its subsidiary Geek Squad Inc. of copyright infringement and misuse of trade secrets. Essentially, it alleges that Best Buy has been using unlicensed versions of the software. A hearing has been set for May 12 in Austin.

The federal judge also gave Best Buy 20 days to hand over all Winternals software copies, as well as identify the employees who used the programs, according to the restraining order.

article has more...

:rofl:

[longship]

1. Oh for Pete's sake.

This is absurd, from both viewpoints.

It's very simple. Use Free software like Linux and Firefox and many other programs and you don't have to worry about being sued.

[lpbk2713]

2. The way this usually happens in a company

and not just retail, management tells the employees they demand maximum productivity and the employees take shortcuts under pressure knowing it is wrong. It's a bad environment to work under and it always ends up with a lot of people in trouble.