So, You Think You Have Problems

National Pawnbroker reports a problem that most of our readers don't face. Southern Pawn in Largo, FL took a computer in pawn and later sold it when the loan was not paid. Later, it received a letter from Microsoft: "Microsoft has received a report that you may have distributed illegal and/or unlicensed Microsoft software." Federal law authorizes damages up to $150,000 for each willful patent infringement. As it turns out, the buyer of the computer had contacted Microsoft for tech support, but could not produce the documents that originally came with the software. Microsoft then traced the computer to the pawnshop. When a consumer seeks to pawn a computer, the manager now asks for the software documentation.