Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Colocation and Data Centers : Microsoft Piracy in Colocation

[boonchuan]

I have a potential client who told me blatantly he will be using pirated Win software on his colocated machine. I told him I never hear that. Was quoting him a high price so that he will not host with us. Thank God he went to a rival colocation centre. Is this common? I have colocated clients who dont have the money to pay for Microsoft licenses , they use Red Hat , Free Bsd, Debian etc, they dun have the money but they dun want to infringe upon others copyright. I feel this shd be the way. Also how do one check if the colocated clients machines are running copyright Windows server licensed? Any utility?

[Cope]

Not too sure about DC work, although I know we are audited. Although we have thousands of Windows licenses.
Dont know of any tool, although if you feel someone is stealing it, you can always go here http://www.microsoft.com/piracy/Reporting.mspx and do the steps on that page.

[boonchuan]

That seems to be like telling on another company : (

[Cope]

Originally posted by boonchuan
That seems to be like telling on another company : (

Instead of "telling on another company" I prefer the phrase "common business ethics" . If they are stealing it, do they really deserve to be using it in the first place?
I know its not the "cool" thing to go telling on people, but if they bought the licenses leagally then they have nothing to worry about. A company that stresses over being audited by Microsoft obviously is new to how things in the real world work. Like something cheating on their taxes.... should they really have anything to worry about when tax records are audited? Not unless they cheated the system. I think the same applies in this case.

[f0urtyfive]

Should people get nervous near cops when they havent done anything, no but many do.

[Joseph_M]

I'd say just give MS a shout, you should ask for a copy of your customer's license, search for the serial number etc online (basic anti-warez search).
If they're hosting other people, then they need to have the right licensing from MS, so MS would have them in their database, not hard for them to pull out the information on a customer of theirs (or tell you that the person isn't licensed)

[buba69]

Yes - all providers should assist in keeping pirated software off their networks. Most providers will do their best to ensure that the software that they depend on for their business operations is legal and they should help to keep their customers legal too. If they flat out tell you they will be using pirated software - just say no thank you please go someplace else...no need to quote a high price - some are willing to pay

[Defcon|Rich]

I would say that would be a serious problem. If this client is stealing Windows what else is he/she stealing? You did the right thing. Now it's someone elses problem, Lets just hope they have the same ethics as you.

[Mustard010]

I had a client who moved to co-location about a year ago. He told me that he will be using the Microsoft Action Subscription Pack licenses to host his servers.

I believe they closed down because of lack of buisness.

Reselling under the Microsoft Subscription Pack is illegal to yes?

[frozen]

I would call reporting them good business ethics as well, not only helping business in general, you are helping your own company by not being associated with the customer. If word got out that you allow Warez on your network(whether it be for download or you allow people to use warez software to operate their servers) it can be very damaging to your reputation.

[monaghan]

Originally posted by Mustard010
I had a client who moved to co-location about a year ago. He told me that he will be using the Microsoft Action Subscription Pack licenses to host his servers.

I believe they closed down because of lack of buisness.

Reselling under the Microsoft Subscription Pack is illegal to yes?

Yes !

The license on this specifically excludes production systems, you can use it for your internal systems and for demo systems, but customer facing production systems need to have a full license.

[htmlkids]

O.o too techincal for me lol!

[IRCCo Jeff]

You should have accepted the customer on a don't ask, don't tell premise and then let Microsoft know about the possibility that its stolen.

[jbigelow]

Originally posted by DeathNova
You should have accepted the customer on a don't ask, don't tell premise and then let Microsoft know about the possibility that its stolen.

No way, then MS (or the BSA) comes down to your data center with a warrant and a peace officer and decide they want to audit all servers.... off premises and its gonna take a few days.

Look at it this way, if some one said they were going to host child porn on a server colo'd in your facility would you say ok and then call the cops? Heck no, who wants to have their company dragged through that kind of ordeal! Send the them somewhere else and call the Feds.

m2c,
Justin

[Rip]

Look at it this way, if some one said they were going to host child porn on a server colo'd in your facility would you say ok and then call the cops? Heck no, who wants to have their company dragged through that kind of ordeal! Send the them somewhere else and call the Feds.

Yea send them to EV1. Heck given thier track record they might send MS a check to license the guy just to be sure

Rip