BSA raids Hyd firm for copyright infringement

BANGALORE: The Business Software Alliance (BSA), the voice of the world's IT software and hardware industry, carried out a civil enforcement action against Hyderabad based SM Technologies and its owner Suresh Babu Mandava.

The defendant has been raided for the second time and software worth around Rs two crore has been seized. The raids led to the recovery of 1,843 CDs, containing pirated software of Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk and Symantec under various titles, versions and copies.

Previously in September 2004, BSA filed a criminal case against the same company and police raided the premises of SM Technologies at three locations in Hyderabad. The criminal case is currently pending against Mandava, the owner of SM Technologies at the Hyderabad District Court.

The firm SM Technologies was allegedly engaged in the illegal distribution of pirated products of Microsoft and Adobe in a repeated fashion, disregarding the copyright law and the criminal case pending against it. The modus operandi of SM Technologies was to create ‘compilation pirated CDs’, with a range of products from Adobe, Autodesk, Microsoft, Symantec and various other software companies. The defendant has been selling the pirated software through multiple channels such as; the Internet, resellers and directly to end-users. Included in the list of seizure from SM Technologies was a 'Sales Brochure', which appears to encompass detailed information on the software available and its pricing

On April 4th 2007, the Hon'ble Delhi High Court granted an ex-parte interim injunction restraining SM Technologies from copying/reproducing, selling pirated/unlicensed version of the Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk and Symantec software. The Court also appointed two independent court commissioners, to search the two premises of SM Technologies in Hyderabad and to seize compact discs and other storage/replicating media, which were found to contain pirated software of Microsoft and Adobe.

A study by IDC has found that a ten point reduction in software piracy in India in a period of four years could add an additional 115,847 jobs; contribute $5.9 billion to the GDP, $386 million in government tax revenues and $8.2 billion in revenues to local vendors.

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