How Microsoft Goes After Pirates

Estimated Reading Time: 2 min

I’ve never been a supporter of piracy, although I am a big advocate for making better product that people would pay for. Microsoft spends millions of dollars every year to combat piracy of its products, and they have some hard core ways of doing it. Of course, software piracy isn’t just software a lot of the times. Remember that next time you buy a pirated copy of Windows from the street: You could be supporting the drug cartels and kidnappers.

The police reached the house undetected, barreled in and found rooms crammed with about 50 machines used to copy CDs and make counterfeit versions of software like Microsoft Office and Xbox video games. They arrested three men on the spot, who were later released while the authorities investigate the case. “The entire operation was very complicated and risky,” says a person close to the investigation, who demanded anonymity out of fear for his life.

The raid added to a body of evidence confirming La Familia’s expansion into counterfeit software as a low-risk, high-profit complement to drugs, bribery and kidnapping. The group even stamps the disks it produces with “FMM,” which stands for Familia Morelia Michoacana, right alongside the original brand of various software makers.