Drug Cartel Pirates Microsoft Office Software

According to a story in today's LA Times, Microsoft has accused a leading Mexican drug cartel of pirating and selling Microsoft Office software. Given the multitude of rogue copies of Office circulating in the world, Microsoft's spotlight on drug cartel puts an interesting spin on the issue of industrial-scale counterfeiting.

Past iterations on this topic have focused on "China" as the principal piracy culprit. The implication in such charges was that the illegal activity was encouraged by the state. Microsoft's concern with drug cartels brings some less tractable elements into the counterfeiting mix. The Microsoft accusation includes describing the drug cartel's sales and distribution operation. The illegal operation is reasonably sophisticated, although far from the scale of a multinational such as, say, Microsoft. One unspoken fear is that state supported gangsters, such as those in Russia and the former Soviet republics, could emulate and improve on the Mexican operation.

Of course, pimping widely copied software is one thing. Wait until the Apples of consumers' eyes enter the gray or downright dark market, courtesy of enterprising underworld "investors".