Software piracy : a Japanese manufacturer to pay $3.3 million

The Business Software Alliance has settled on the largest friendly agreement in their history. A Japanese manufacturer has accepted to pay a $3.3 million settlement for the use of unlicensed software.

This is a historic agreement for the BSA which brings together numerous software manufacturers in the fight against software piracy in enterprise. A Japanese manufacturer has accepted to pay 3.3 million dollars to bring their company up to date with legal software.

During an audit, it was noticed that the manufacturer had 3913 copies of software missing the corresponding licenses. Among the listed programs, the BSA notes Adobe Illustrator, AutoCAD, FileMaker Pro and Microsoft Office, software releases all produced by BSA members.

For the president of the BSA, this case should remind companies that controls exist and that they risk heavy financial penalties if they are lax with software piracy. The Japanese BSA representative was sorry that such an affair could happen in his country.

According to a recent global study on software piracy conducted by the BSA, Japan was one of the best countries with piracy at around 21% in 2009, just behind the United States with 20%. France, meanwhile, has a level of piracy of around 40%.

The BSA most often woks from tip offs. In 2009, close to 4000 companies using software without licenses were signalled to the BSA who in turn filed 2256 law suits in Europe.