Partners irked over Intel raid

A raid conducted by Intel's Vigilance Anti-piracy and Solutions Agency saw
three channel partners being interrogated at a city police station on  charges of
allegedly dealing in fake processors. The trio, who are also  members of the Computer and Media Dealers Association (CMDA), were later
released when the charges could not be proved. A four-hour protest was  staged by 50 members of CMDA outside the Bund Garden police station on May
30.  

The drama began when Intel, with the help of the local police, raided the
premises of a genuine Intel dealer (GID) on charges of possessing and  re-packing CPUs.
Three partners were taken in for interrogation when the  CMDA president John Thomas intervened. Charges against these dealers were
dropped when the local Intel representative confirmed that the CPUS were  genuine. 

"This is similar to what happened in Chennai. First, the vigilance agency
accused resellers of possessing re-marked and re-packaged CPUs. However,  even the
local representative of Intel failed to substantiate this charge.  

Subsequently, the agency wanted to level charges of possessing CPUs not
procured from the authorized channel. The agency was simply hell-bent on  lodging an
FIR," fumes John. 

CMDA members then grouped together, along with some major GIDs in the city,
protesting against the demands made by Intel representatives of pressing  charges against their members.  

Anil Pherwani, Secretary, CMDA, feels that what Intel had done was  completely wrong and the raids were not conducted in a proper way. "Intel
should adopt the HP policy and do something about their pricing to ensure  that the parallel route does not flourish," he states. 

According to him, earlier Intel use to sell around 2,000 CPUs a month in Pune, of which 1,900 came from the direct route and a mere 100 came from the
parallel route. "However with the change in the pricing ratio, the number of
parallel imports has increased," adds Anil. 

Suresh Joshi, VP, CMDA who was very upset by the incident said that manner
in which Intel had behaved was ridiculous. "Even the Intel representative  confirmed that the piece was genuine. Only the dealer sticker was missing,"
he says. 

According to CMDA members, products brought through the parallel route are
perfectly legal and do not breach any copyright. Further Suresh is of the  opinionthat as long as the CPUs are imported legally, even if it is not
sourced through its distributors, Intel cannot take any action against  partners. 

CMDA has taken serious note of the issue and has circulated a note amongst
its members to refrain from using the parallel route. 

CYBER NEWS SERVICE