National Leader in Software and Content Anti-Piracy Efforts Announces
Increase in Settlements, Suits and Rewards for 2007
WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Software &
Information Industry Association (SIIA), the principal trade association
for the software and digital content industry, today released its 2007
Anti-Piracy Year in Review. The annual report chronicles SIIA's anti-piracy
efforts, and profiles the typical organization reported, the demographics
of those who report software piracy and some of the notorious software
piracy criminals imprisoned during the year. Notable achievements in 2007
included the largest-ever auction site piracy settlement, the first
settlement in SIIA's Corporate Content Anti-Piracy Program and new
education efforts to better protect consumers and help businesses ensure
compliance.
"As we continued to aggressively pursue those who illegally sell or
distribute pirated software and content, we also increased our educational
outreach efforts in 2007," said Keith Kupferschmid, SIIA SVP of
Intellectual Property Policy and Enforcement. "By balancing enforcement
with education, SIIA was able to crack down on illegal software sales and
help consumers avoid purchasing pirated software. We also made strides in
helping legal, public relations and other professionals effectively do
their jobs within current copyright law."
For almost 20 years, SIIA's Corporate Anti-Piracy program has been a
national leader in combating software piracy in the workplace. In 2007,
SIIA received 427 reports of alleged piracy - more than one and a half per
business day. Of these, 17% were judged sufficiently reliable to pursue,
illustrating SIIA's conservative and fair approach to anti-piracy
enforcement.
The largest share of software titles pirated fall in the productivity
categories - word processing, office suites, report design, web design,
etc. - the software used most often in business.
SIIA brought a high-profile corporate piracy case last year against
Florida Benchmark, Inc., a mortgage survey company. After being served with
the lawsuit, the firm cooperated with SIIA and conducted an audit which
revealed they were using unlicensed software. Florida Benchmark eventually
settled with SIIA for $150,000.
The report also profiled the ten most-pirated SIIA-member software
titles for the first time. For 2007, the most pirated software titles were:
2007 Software Titles Most Frequently Pirated By Companies
1. Symantec Norton Anti-Virus
2. Adobe Acrobat
3. Symantec PC Anywhere
4. Adobe PhotoShop
5. Autodesk AutoCAD
6. Adobe DreamWeaver
7. Roxio Easy CD/DVD Creator
8. Roxio Toast Titanium
9. Ipswitch WS_FTP
10. Nero Ultra Edition
2007 Software Titles Most Frequently Pirated on the Internet
1. McAfee VirusScan
2. Symantec Norton Anti-Virus
3. McAfee Internet Security Suite
4. Intuit TurboTax
5. Adobe Photoshop
6. Adobe Acrobat
7. Intuit Quicken Home and Business
8. Symantec Norton pcAnywhere
9. Symantec Norton Ghost
10. Adobe Creative Suite
SIIA Auction Litigation Program
SIIA's Auction Litigation Program aims to protect legitimate sellers
and unwitting consumers, while aggressively pursuing those who repeatedly
sell pirated software on auction sites. The program monitors popular online
auction sites such as eBay, identifying individuals or groups selling
pirated software and prosecuting them on behalf of the association's member
companies.
One such case was settled in May 2007, when, working on behalf of its
member company Symantec Corp., SIIA announced a $250,000 settlement for
infringement of Symantec's software in the case of Symantec et al. v. Chan,
et al. SIIA accused the defendant of infringing Symantec's copyrights and
trademarks in Norton PartitionMagic, Norton AntiVirus, pcAnywhere, Norton
SystemWorks and other software, by reselling counterfeit and contraband
software on eBay. This was just one of the many suits against auction
resellers SIIA has settled on behalf of its member companies.
SIIA Consumer Education Efforts
To help consumers better understand how to legally purchase software,
SIIA expanded its far-reaching public education campaign, which included
the launch of several new initiatives. SIIA's "Don't Get Mad, Get Even"
program allowed consumers who unwittingly purchased counterfeit software on
auction sites to receive cash in return for information about the original
unlawful seller. SIIA published three new Software Buyer's Guides that
provide tips to consumers to help them avoid purchasing illegal software on
auction sites.
In addition, SIIA implemented its Certified Software Reseller program
in 2007, under which online software vendors can register with SIIA to
become officially "certified," which gives consumers confidence in their
online software purchases.
SIIA Corporate Content Anti-Piracy Program
In September 2007, SIIA settled its first case in the new Corporate
Content Anti-Piracy Program, on behalf of member companies the Associated
Press, Dow Jones & Co., Nielsen, Reed Elsevier and United Press
International. The consulting firm Knowledge Networks, Inc. had routinely
taken copyrighted articles owned by these and other publishers and included
copies in a "press packet" it distributed to employees, first in paper form
and later by e-mail. The firm agreed to a $300,000 settlement, and
committed to take remedial measures.
For a copy of the 2007 SIIA Anti-Piracy Year-End Report, contact SIIA
or download a PDF from http://www.siia.net/piracy.
About SIIA
The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) is the principal
trade association for the software and digital content industry. SIIA
provides global services in government relations, business development,
corporate education and intellectual property protection to more than 550
leading software and information companies. For further information, visit
http://www.siia.net.
|
