Where do your sympathies lie in Microsoft's legal battle with Comet?

ChannelWeb asks readers to cast their votes on Microsoft's recent legal spat with Comet

Electronics retailer Comet was slapped with a lawsuit earlier this month by software giant Microsoft, which accused the firm of making and reselling more than 94,000 copies of counterfeit Windows recovery discs.

Comet hit back with a statement denying its activities had infringed Microsoft's intellectual property rights and claiming that its actions had been in the "very best interests" of its customers.

In a recent ChannelWeb poll, visitors were asked to cast their vote on which party they are backing, with 61 per cent siding with Microsoft and 30 per cent opting for Comet.

Despite this, one voter, Bashaar Jamil, said he had some sympathy with Comet, and could appreciate how the firm may have come unstuck.

"Comet was trying to be very helpful by giving consumers these discs, but what it forgot to do was check the small print," he explained.

"Microsoft has stated, in its OEM licences, that software which comes pre-installed on the machines cannot be copied on to a disc."