Anti-Piracy Task Force Nets $1 Million, Autodesk Says
 
Microbytes Daily News Service
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
An anti-piracy task force has netted $1 million so far for one
software company. After a year-long campaign to catch software
pirates in the US and abroad, the "Special Projects" task force
at Autodesk (Sausalito, CA), maker of Autocad and other programs,
so far has recovered more than $1 million dollars in piracy
settlements, the company claims. However, that figure represents
just a fraction of the total losses caused by software piracy.
 
Most of the settlements have come from US piracy cases, says
Sandra Boulton, Autodesk's Special Projects director. To catch
domestic pirates, Autodesk relies on a network of informants,
such as employees, stockholders, and others associated with a
company, she says. When Autodesk hears of someone making illegal
copies of one of its programs, its sends a letter to the alleged
pirate, warning him or her of the legal consequences of
"softlifting."  Boulton says the average AutoCAD pirate is an
architect or engineer who buys 1 copy of the program and makes 10
copies for each workstation in the office.
 
These days software piracy in the US is more a case of dishonesty
than ignorance, according to Boulton. "People are more aware of
the laws now, thanks to educational efforts by the electronics
and computer industries," Boulton says. She estimates that
there are 7-10 illegal copies of AutoCAD for every one legal copy
the company sells. Although Autodesk doesn't offer site licenses,
it does offer volume discounts to business users.
 
Software piracy overseas is even more difficult to control.
Autodesk has participated in raids of large-scale software piracy
operations in Hong Kong and Singapore, Boulton says. But in many
countries, copyright laws either don't exist or aren't enforced.
 
                              --- Jeffrey Bertolucci
 
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