Major Push Coming Against Pirates On Online Auction Sites

A software industry trade group plans to launch next week a major initiative against software piracy on EBay Inc. and other popular online auction sites by filing its first round of lawsuits.

The Software and Information Industry Association, a major trade group for the software and digital content industry, will unveil the Auction Litigation Program Tuesday at a San Francisco news conference, the organization's public relations firm said in an email. The first round of lawsuits would be filed Monday in Los Angeles.

Under the program, the SIIA would monitor auction sites, identify individuals and groups selling pirated software and sue suspected pirates on behalf of its members.

SIIA officials were not immediately available for comment. The group has 750 members that include some of the biggest names in the industry, including Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi America, IBM and Time Warner Inc. Companies that may not be members but participate in the group's anti-piracy efforts include Adobe Systems, Intuit, Microsoft and Oracle.

EBay welcomed the efforts of the SIIA in helping software companies protect themselves from copyright infringement."The effort will help protect members of the eBay community from purchasing items that may be counterfeit or otherwise unauthorized," the company said in an email sent in response to a request for comment.

The sale of fake products on marketplaces like EBay has been a longtime problem. Tiffany & Co., for example, is suing EBay in New York, claiming the company isn't taking adequate steps to remove fake Tiffany jewelry from the site. The jewelry seller estimates that at least three out of four Tiffany products sold on EBay are counterfeit. The state court lawsuit is pending.

EBay won't say how many auctions of fake products it has shutdown, but insists it is a very small percentage of its overall business. The marketplace also says that it's not responsible for the goods sold, arguing that it only provides the online real estate and never sees or actually touches the items.

The responsibility to watch for counterfeits lies with the trademark owners, EBay says. When an item is found to be fake, the company immediately removes it from the site.