Microsoft is threatening to take legal action in China against 13 PC resellers who Microsoft has identified as pirating Windows OS copies. These 13 resellers deal in major PC brands like Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo. This announcement made on Tuesday was part of Microsoft’s anti-piracy campaign in China, the largest market for PCs and smartphones.
The Anti-piracy campaign has been ongoing for Microsoft globally and they are making quite some strides. In December, Microsoft did the same for 16 other PC resellers who bundled in counterfeit Windows copies with the PCs they sold. Microsoft seeks to go to court if they dont reach a settlement with the said PC resellers.According to Microsoft, tests on Chinese PCs show that they were installed with pirated copies while 91% of these contain malware and other vulnerabilities. Most of these situations are attributed to manifacturers installing free Operating Systems that are not Windows, leading to pirated installations as a replacement when users purchase them This is usually done to keep costs down. Microsoft had since threatened to stop sale of physical copies of Windows and only leave the option of digital downloads.