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back to article International media firm pays $3.5m over pirate software

An unnamed international media firm has agreed to pay a record fine of €2.5m ($3.46m) for being found to have "significant shortfalls in software licenses". The record damages penalty was agreed following a criminal complaint made by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) on behalf of Adobe, Autodesk, Avid, and Microsoft. This …

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  1. corestore

    Police???

    "This complaint led to police raids on the firm's premises"

    Oh really? Why were the police involved in what would appear to be a civil matter? What crimes were suspected, what evidence was found, and was there or will there be a criminal prosecution?

    Mike

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pirates kick ass....

    What has Chuck Norris got to say about it though? Discuss.....

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  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Generic Title

    So the management were shocked that they relied on an under resourced individual.. and its said individuals fault?

    a scapegoat?? Get real! more like pin the blame on the donkey.

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  4. gareth

    Pirates

    Forget ye not that september the 19th be international 'speak like a pirate' day. Don't be sayin ye wern't fore warned, ye scurvy dor. arrr

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  5. Lee Ward

    ..having worked in the media at one time

    I'd be willing to bet that the "single individual", was under pressure from the management to get the mentioned expansion done asap and with an unrealistic budget.

    The media outlets I worked for all had software licence violations of one type or another, for similar reasons.

    It can by very "tempting" to just install the apps as needed.

    That doesn't condone it though.

    Don't Autodesk and Avid still use dongles ?

    If so... they had to do more than simply install the apps with the same registration code. A bit more... "intent"

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  6. A. Merkin

    Prosecuters will be Violated

    I heard this "unamed organization" was in fact the RIAA!

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  7. Sampler

    RIAA - ballaches | BSA - assholes

    Why would the BRITISH Software Association go after the Recording Industry Ass. of AMERICA?

    Stop posting tripe.

    As for the BSA - they work on the basis of guilty until proven innocent - if you did pay for the licences for all your proggies than through poor filing couldn't show them to the BSA then your software is deemed illegal and you are fined/ass raped.

    They do not try to protect British industries and help them follow guidelines, reprehending a company when needs be but go after everyone like a vicious pit bull so they can shout from the highest hill what a great job they're doing, how much they're needed and how much more funding they will need.

    Anyone who lets them into their company without a court order should be sacked on the spot/made the scapegoat WHEN things go sour (not IF).

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Long John Silver

    ...one legged Pirates don't kick so much ass.

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  9. John Murgatroyd

    Why police ?

    Why the police ?

    Software theft is a crime.

    Or: http://news.zdnet.co.uk/itmanagement/0,1000000308,2126185,00.htm

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  10. Lee Ward

    Sampler...read it again...

    it's the Business Software Alliance..... NOT the British Software Association.

    Business Software Alliance (BSA) head office is in New York with it's European office in London and Asian office in Singapore

    http://www.bsa.org/Contact%20BSA.aspx

    as for the RIAA...

    I can't see the RIAA having much use for Autodesk or Avid software but I am wrong fairly often.....

    Lee.

    Hmm.. maybe it was a PR arm of the Pastafarian Church and they were simply celebrating Talk Like A Pirate Day a bit early....

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  11. Demian Phillips

    BSA

    Over here in the USA the BSA is the Busness Software Alliance

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  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Re RIAA and BSA

    "Why would the BRITISH Software Association go after the Recording Industry Ass. of AMERICA?"

    BSA is actually the Business Software Alliance, as the Register article makes clear.

    - Erik

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  13. Jon Tocker

    Please, oh please...

    Let A. Merkin be correct.

    I'd love to hear the RIAA had been arse-raped for rampant PIRACY.

    That'd rank up there with what happened to SCO.

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  14. Luke Wells

    Why the police?

    I too don't understand the police involvement (as others have said above)

    Not paying for enough licences is a civil matter?

    OK If I was selling pirate software on a car boot, or had a factory making pirate CD's then yes,. I'd expect the police to turn up eventually.

    ..... but if I installed my copy of windows at home on 2 of my computers (which would be a licence violation) then can I expect the police to be able to kick my front door in at 4am and raid my house?

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