Microsoft is suing a recycling company it hires to to destroy old products, alleging one of the contractor’s employees stole millions of dollars worth of Office software licenses and subsequently sold them on the black market.
Since Microsoft had entrusted Global Electronic Recycling with the safekeeping of the products until they could be destroyed, Microsoft argues GER is on the hook for the copyright damages it will suffer, according to the lawsuit filed earlier this week.
Microsoft has worked with GER since 2009 as part of an effort to dispose of unused and obsolete hardware and software, and do it in an environmentally friendly way. These were often valuable products that the company was taking out of circulation for one reason or another, so GER agreed to store Microsoft’s material in secure facilities until it could be rendered unusable.