The severity of software piracy was recently underscored when Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer of the U.S. District Court (Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division) awarded Microsoft Corp damages of more than $1.5 million in its software piracy case against Chicago-based Logical Choice Computers Inc. Judge Pallmeyer issued a 33-page opinion on Jan. 19, in which she found Logical Choice Computers had distributed counterfeit copies of Microsoft® Office Professional 97 and Windows® 95 software. In the opinion, Microsoft Corp. v. Logical Choice Computers Inc., filed in U.S. District Ct., N.D. Ill. No. 99 C 1300, the court held that Logical Choice Computers' ``actions amounted to willful infringement and ignorance of Microsoft's legal rights.'' The court found that the actions violated the Federal Copyright Law, Federal Trademark Law, Illinois Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the Illinois common law of unfair competition.
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