To the tune of $15 Million, Symantec has filed suit and is going against a software piracy ring that has been selling counterfeit versions of their software for the past three years. Filed a month ago, the suit claims that a string of companies in both the U.S. and Canada were selling pirated copies of various Symantec software, such as Norton AV, PCAnywhere and Veritas Backup Exec. All three of these are very popular in the workplace, meaning that a large number of businesses may be operating counterfeit software without even being aware of it. While the companies named in the suit are only U.S. and Canadian companies, the ring itself is said to be a global one. It seems from the article that the pirated software wouldn't have been very hard to identify:
Customers who paid for the software received disks bearing Symantec's logo but wrapped in plain white sleeves. The disks, which came without documentation, would not install or work properly and in some cases included malicious software designed to steal sensitive information from the purchaser's computer, Paden said.
Nevertheless, it happened. According to Symantec, they lose $50 Million a year due to piracy