Microsoft today revealed lawsuits in nine US states against 20 resellers accused of selling counterfeit software or engaging in hard-disk loading.

We are unfamiliar with the term hard-disk loading, but Microsoft is on hand with the following definition: "The installation of unlicensed software on computers that are then sold to unsuspecting businesses or consumers."

An MS study of 348 counterfeit WinXP disks conducted in June and released today revealed that one in three would not install on a PC. The remaining counterfeit disks "proved to have risks due to tampered code, which could result in denial-of-service attacks, bypass of password protection and application memory corruption".

The list of resellers and their alleged copyright infringements is at Microsoft.com. You can find more details on the study at the same place. ®

Related stories

• Microsoft's SAM carrot (21 February 2007)
• Microsoft settles counterfeiting suit (19 December 2006)
• Microsoft goes for eBay pirates (31 October 2006)
• MS builds tougher piracy protection into Vista (5 October 2006)
• Microsoft keelhauls customers in WGA snafu (4 October 2006)
• Microsoft keelhauls 26 pirates (18 July 2006)
• Letters Microsoft WGA row continues (12 June 2006)
• MS urges Brits to stone software pirates (8 May 2006)
• Ballmer blames bad guys for Microsoft pricing (28 April 2006)
• In brief Microsoft hunts pirate auctioneers (16 March 2006)
• Internet fuels trade in counterfeit goods (28 July 2005)