Million-dollar penalties for illegal software – in Poland … – CHIP

The settlement affects more than 200 illegal programs that were installed on the computers of the company.

This high damages for copyright infringement to software in Poland should be a warning to all companies that decide to use software in violation of the license. Combating this type of crime is also becoming more efficient thanks to the growing effectiveness of investigations and cooperation disadvantaged producers with law enforcement – said Pawel Sawicki lawyer with the Office of Sołtysiński Kawecki & amp; Szlęzak, representing members of the BSA | The Software Alliance in Poland.

Among the victims businesses are m.in .: Autodesk, Microsoft and Siemens. Claims of owners of copyrights arising from Art. 79 paragraph. 1 of the Act on copyright and related rights in connection with multiplication and possession without a permit software.

This agreement is pushing the BSA anti-piracy program in Poland on a qualitatively new level in terms of the effectiveness of copyright protection comparable to that United States and Japan, where compensation calculated in millions of dollars are not uncommon. It seems that this is the effect of growth the number of reports of cases of use of illegal software in Polsce.W recent years increased by several times the average oscillating in the range even approx. 800 applications per year. This is a good signal, providing that growing public awareness of stealing someone else’s intellectual property. Moreover, it proves that the BSA is moving in the right direction, having a real impact on the protection of intellectual property creators of computer software. This agreement, made out of $ 1 million, is by far a record in Poland. This is a good and necessary trend, especially in Poland where we have in this field is still much to be done. Any notice sent to BSA is analyzed in detail and if there is a suspicion of committing a crime, the law enforcement agencies are notified. It is worth remembering that the effects of software piracy felt not only software developers, but also local distributors and other companies in the industry due to piracy which receive less revenue, lost customers and projects. Software piracy due to the nieodprowadzone taxes is a negative phenomenon also from the point of view of the Treasury. It weakens the economy, including the creation of new jobs. A report published a few years ago a study conducted by INSEAD, one of the leading business schools in the world, it follows that 1-percent increase in the use of licensed software would provide the domestic economy more than 2 billion – said Bartlomiej Witucki, the representative of the BSA | The Software Alliance in Poland.

Your use of unlicensed software business involves risk and financial liability, the threat of losing the good name of company and customer information security threat and exposes the serious organizational problems, including downtime for the company in accident arrest by the police of hard drives.

Notifications of cases of piracy can be reported to the following address: polskapiractwo@bsa.org

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