Philippine school sues Microsoft for copyright violation

A Philippine college has filed a suit against Microsoft Corp. for allegedly reproducing the school's copyrighted materials without consent, according to Xinhua.net.

The report cited the online edition of the Philippine Daily Inquirer as saying that the Southeastern College (SEC) filed the case at a regional court in Metro Manila against the software giant and its local subsidiary, Microsoft Philippines, for copying and distributing the school's 's 370-page manual on how to operate Microsoft Office XP system.

According to SEC, the manual was copyrighted in 2005 for the exclusive use of teachers and students. Microsoft Philippines has reportedly purchased licenses to print 10,000 copies of the manual in 2004 but the SEC claimed that the company copied the contents and made them into CDs for distribution.

Atty. Estelito Mendoza, legal counsel for SEC said that the college did not give Microsoft the authority to reproduce and/or distribute the materials in CDs. He added that SEC only agreed to have the copies printed and turning them into CDs and distributing them violates the college's rights to intellectual property.

About 700 CD copies of the manual have allegedly been distributed to local high school teachers in two separate corporate events in 2006, the report said.