BSA and NASSCOM initiate legal proceedings

Business Software Alliance (BSA) and NASSCOM have initiated legal action against Chennai based SICGIL India Ltd, an industrial gas company with several Carbon dioxide manufacturing facilities in Southern India, and its subsidiary Co-Soft India Ltd, alleging their use of pirated software.

Acting on information that SICGIL and Co-Soft were indulging in copyright piracy by the large-scale use of pirated software at their company premises, BSA and NASSCOM member companies filed a civil suit before the Delhi High Court seeking to restrain the two companies from further acts of piracy, and damages. This action was conducted based on a complaint received on the anti-piracy hotline.

An application was also made to the Court to appoint a court official to visit the premises of SICGIL and Co-Soft and seize all computers found to be containing pirated software. This request was granted by the Court and the surprise raid was conducted by court appointed officials with the help of technical experts on three premises of SICGIL and Co-Soft. The raids led to the seizure of 12 computers and two CDs, which the Plaintiffs allege contain pirated software. The court officials' reports in this regard have been filed before the Court.

Use of 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 3 years and fine of up to Rs 2
lakh.

"India's software piracy rate is 63 percent which is high and we are committed to bring this down through a combination of education and enforcement," said Vanessa Hutley, VP, BSA. "Over the past one year BSA and NASSCOM have initiated legal actions against several companies for using pirated and unlicensed software. The raids on SICGIL and Co-Soft India are part of this campaign to make organizations aware of dangers of using pirated software."

BSA and NASSCOM also conduct a program in which they encourage people to report incidents of software piracy by calling the BSA NASSCOM anti-piracy hotline number, 1600-334455.