Mammoth Blog

A software industry group representing Adobe Systems Inc., Symantec Corp. filed seven suits Friday against eBay sellers it accuses of pirating Adobe Photoshop and other programs to sell on the auctioneer's Web site.

The suits were filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California by the Software & Information Industry Association. The litigation adds to two other cases the association said it filed against eBay sellers two weeks ago, one involving the illegal sale of Symantec's pcAnywhere.

All nine cases stemmed from the association's Auction Litigation Program, which monitors popular online auction sites, identifies individuals or groups selling pirated software and sues those parties on behalf of the association's member companies.

The seven suits were filed Friday charged sellers in California, Texas, Washington and Illinois of knowingly selling illegal copies of Adobe PhotoShop CS3 and other software products on eBay.

The Washington, D.C.,-based SIIA represents an array of software, banks, publishers, media companies and other organizations including major Bay Area companies and East Bay companies such as Scientific Learning of Oakland and Infosys Technologies Ltd., whose U.S. headquarters is in Fremont. source