Hyd court indicts three for SW piracy

HYDERABAD: In a judgment by a Hyderabad Court three people were convicted and sentenced to six months imprisonment and Rs 50,000 of fine for unauthorized copying and sale of pirated software. This outcome has emerged as part of the on-going Business Software Alliance (BSA) and National Association of Software and Service Companies’ (NASSCOM) Anti-Piracy Campaigns.

The XXI Metropolitan Magistrate"s Court, Hyderabad has, for the first time, indicted three people, Prabhu Dayal and Shambhunath Jha of Big Apple Computers and Anup Kumar of Anuj Computers for infringing software copyright and indulging in unauthorized copying and sale of software. Both the dealers are based in Hyderabad. The accused, have been found guilty under Sec 63 of the copyright Act and Sec 78 and 79 of Trademarks Act and have been sentenced to six months of imprisonment and Rs 50,000 fine, each.

Based on the evidence gathered from investigations by four of BSA"s and NASSCOM member companies, including, Microsoft, Adobe, Autodesk and Tata Consultancy Services, the companies in April 1999 filed complaints with the Central Crime Station, Hyderabad against the two dealers.

The Police acting on the complaints raided the premises of Big Apple Computers and Anuj Computers, and seized the infringing goods, including CD"s and computers with hard disks containing unlicensed versions of software. The owners of the business entities were also arrested after the raids.

During the trial period, in the case of Anuj Computers, the seizure included Compact Disks, which were referred by the Police to the Laboratory Computer Systems, Forensic Science Laboratories (FSL), Government of Andhra Pradesh. The FSL report confirmed the presence of pirated software.

Business Software Alliance, in association with Nasscom has been running a nation-wide campaign in India against illegal sale and use of software within companies. Sale/distribution of unlicensed/pirated software, in addition to being a civil wrong under the Copyright Act, is also a criminal offense and is punishable with imprisonment of up to three years, and fine of up to Rs 2 lakh.