An accused seller of counterfeit Symantec products over eBay has agreed to pay the firm $205,000 in restitution. The Software & Information Industry Association claims the practice remains a serious problem for many vendors. Just a few days after filing suit against a pack of suspicious resellers charged with selling pirated copies of its security software online, Symantec has seen a legal claim brought against yet another accused counterfeiter of its products settled.According to the Washington-based Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), which had been working on behalf of Symantec in a handful of suits charging individuals with illegal distribution of its software over eBay, one of the accused parties has agreed to pay damages back to the firm.The SIIA reported on May 22 that it has reached a settlement with Grace Chan of San Jose, Calif., in its piracy case pending in the Central District of California. The defendant will pay Symantec $205,000, as well as agree to other confidential terms for sales of unauthorized software over eBay, the industry group said. In bringing the suit, Symantec found an unlikely partner in rival McAfee, with the two leading anti-virus firms filing a handful of claims against individuals accused with selling pirated or otherwise unauthorized versions of their products over eBay roughly one year ago.Four more of the cases remain open, but officials with SIIA highlighted the Chan settlement as proof that it can stop counterfeiters.The lawsuit was filed under SIIA’s Auction Litigation Program, which is specifically aimed at halting illegal sales of counterfeit products on sites such as eBay, as well as stopping auctions of products not meant for re-sale, such as applications distributed freely to school systems. SIIA said that the program involves monitoring popular online auction sites, identifying individuals or groups selling pirated software, and suing on behalf of its members. “The sale of pirated software through online auctions is a growing problem that hurts buyers, sellers and the auction sites themselves,” Keith Kupferschmid, senior vice president of SIIA’s Software Anti-Piracy Division, said in a statement. “Consumers are getting duped, legitimate businesses are losing money and the credibility of eBay and other sites is under attack. With existing auction site tools doing little to curb the problem, SIIA has stepped up its efforts to aggressively pursue software pirates.”SIIA officials said they also hold eBay and other auction sites responsible for failing to do a better job of policing user activity. While eBay has policies in place to try to stop illegal and counterfeit products sales, it needs to improve its efforts, the group maintains. The industry group said that the Chan settlement “demonstrates both the ease of circumventing eBay’s current fraud prevention protocols and the many traps for unwary consumers buying online.”“Infringers often are able to use multiple user identities, and multiple ‘storefronts’ to continue their activities for long periods of time,” Scott Bain, SIIA Litigation Counsel, said in a statement. “We are working to identify and pursue these individuals and their sources distributing all varieties of pirated software – whether counterfeit copies or illegal OEM, educational, and unbundled products.”SIIA specifically said it was forced to launch the Auction Litigation Program when the process of taking down suspicious auctions via eBay’s Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) program failed to “adequately remedy” the problem. Through the program, SIIA filed three lawsuits in May 2006 and two more in Nov. 2006. The group said that it plans to file more of the suits over the coming weeks and months. Security