Bengaluru firm in dock for using software sans licence  

Complaint was filed against Total Environment Building Systems Private Ltd, an architect-led design company, for alleged illegal usage of pirated V-Ray software used for architectural designing.
For representational purposes
For representational purposes

BENGALURU: If you think piracy continues to be practised because of lack of enforcement and one can keep going scotfree if a software is used without licence, here’s some news that should wake you up.
The Kadugodi police have registered a case against a private tech firm for doing just that. 

Earlier this week, a complaint was filed against Total Environment Building Systems Private Ltd, an architect-led design company, for alleged illegal usage, sales and distribution of unlicensed/ pirated  V-Ray software used for architectural designing and rendering and  WINRAR Software, which is used for condensing/resizing of heavy files, for the past one year, although the company said they were using it for a 40-day free trial.

The complaint was registered at Kadugodi Police Station on Friday and a raid was conducted by the police. “All hardware and software-related products were seized and we are investigating,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Whitefield), Abdul Ahad, adding that despite Whitefield being a techie-populated area, he had seen such cases during his two-year tenure.  “Usually, cases are related to pirated movie CDs,” he said.

A spokesperson from Total Environment denied the allegation stating that the company had indeed purchased the software.  

However, sub-inspector of Kadugodi Police Station, Sarojini Waghamore, confirmed to TNSE that the company had indeed been using pirated software.

“We checked the computers. We collected all the information. We have seized five hard disks. The company told us they had just been using the software for learning purposes where it can be used for free for a period of 40 days. However, they have not paid post that time period,” she said.

As of now, a chargesheet will be filed after getting a forensic lab report on the seized devices. An FIR has been registered under Sections 51 and 63b of the Copyright Act, 1957 and Section 420 of the IPC.

A similar case was reported in Mumbai wherein the Bombay High Court had intervened, ordering the police to quash an FIR last year. In that case, the agent claimed to have the authority to enforce the copyright, although the company that had made the software had not lodged a complaint.

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