After the SIIA official was outbid, he would receive an e-mail from a seller offering software for less than his lowest bid. Tips and Tricks SIIA also published a white paper on Internet auction piracy on Wednesday, which says software sellers manipulate the rules of Internet auction sites to datamine e-mail addresses of bidders on software, creating a direct marketing channel. EBay has tried to counter this by making it impossible to search for certain words, such as backup and CD-RW, in the software category. Yahoo is considering doing the same, Beruk says. The SIIA white paper also shows how suspected pirates are using Internet auctions to turn better than a 90 percent profit from sales of illegal software products, and how they are reaching thousands of new customers with little effort or cost.
Pirates also enjoy virtual anonymity through multiple screen names, the paper says.
It also explains the risks consumers face when purchasing pirated software. The association plans to file lawsuits against three other individuals who sold software to SIIA officials during the sting. SIIA has information about other cases that it plans to turn over to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation for possible criminal charges, Beruk says. The lawsuits against Chu and Kish are the first civil cases filed by SIIA against suspected pirates who find customers by sending e-mail to people who bid on software at Web auction sites. SIIA decided to take civil action to draw attention to the problem, which the association says is mushrooming, especially with the falling price of CD-RW drives and the growing use of Web site auctions.