Microsoft looked into the results of its software piracy monitoring program and came up with a comparative report on a number of Russian regions. According to this report, about 70% out of 3,000 retail outlets inspected by the company representatives in fifty-three Russian cities only sell licenses software products, whereas 14% of stores might offer their customers pre-installed counterfeited software, the company’s press service says.

As for Ural Federal District, the scale of software piracy was the greatest in Magnitogorsk, Chelyabinsk Region, with 30% to 50% of computer shops openly offering to have counterfeited software installed on a customer’s computer. In fact, Magnitogorsk’s piracy level is among the highest in Russia, while Chelyabinsk Region leaves all the other regions of Ural Federal District behind in terms of piracy problems. The scale of counterfeiting has actually increased this year compared to a year earlier. At the same time, software piracy appears to be on the decrease in Kurgan Region, while Sverdlovsk Region is not even on the ‘problem regions’ list at all.

Microsoft’s Legal Department carried out 970 inspections of retail software shops in 2009; this has already resulted in 437 criminal lawsuits.