BSA and NASSCOM win largest settlement for copyright case 

Business Software Alliance (BSA) and NASSCOM have announced a court settlement with NextLinx India Pvt Ltd, the Bangalore based subsidiary of NextLinx Corp, US, for using illegal unlicensed software. The settlement includes damages of $ 30,000, complete legalization of software used by them, removal of all unlicensed/pirated software and submission to an unannounced audit of computer systems during the next 12 months. 

A civil raid was conducted at the premises of NextLinx in December 2000, leading to inspection and impounding of 40 PCs, carrying illegal unlicensed software. This is the largest corporate piracy case ever brought by BSA and NASSCOM in India and the first civil raid against an organization of this size. The damages of $ 30,000 by NextLinx are also the largest settlement amount for any copyright case in India. 

BSA and NASSCOM also announced settlement with New Delhi-based, International Print-o-Pack, for the infringement of copyright on a range of its member's software titles including Adobe PageMaker and Adobe PhotoShop. International Print-o-Pack has undertaken not to use any unlicensed software in future and Adobe Systems Inc, has been granted the right to conduct an unannounced software audit on Print-o-Pack's premises in the next 12 months. 

"India's software piracy rate is about 59 percent and this represents retail losses of Rs 900 crore," said Phiroz Vandrevala, Chairman, NASSCOM. "Intellectual property is the lifeblood of software industry and protecting it is essential, given the contribution the software industry can make to the Indian economy." 

BSA and NASSCOM have launched a nation-wide campaign in India against illegal use of software. Over the next few months, BSA and NASSCOM are conducting a series of seminars across the country for organizations to manage their software assets and lower their cost of software ownership. 

Through this campaign, they are calling on all organizations to review the use of software and ensure that they use legal software on their PCs. They will also conduct a program in which they'll encourage people to report incidents of software piracy by calling the anti-piracy hotline number, 1600-334455.