22
May
2007
|
02:51 AM
America/Los_Angeles

Symantec settles piracy suit for $200K and trade group promises aggressive litigation

Symantec, working through the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), has settled its claims for copyright infringement against Grace Chan, who the company accused of selling pirated software over eBay, SIIA said in a press release. (Infoworld story here.) Chan settled for $205,000 and other confidential terms.


“The sale of pirated software through online auctions is a growing problem that hurts buyers, sellers and the auction sites themselves,” said Keith Kupferschmid, SVP of SIIA’s Software Anti-Piracy Division. “Consumers are getting duped, legitimate businesses are losing money and the credibility of eBay and other sites is under attack. With existing auction site tools doing little to curb the problem, SIIA has stepped up its efforts to aggressively pursue software pirates.”




The case is something of an opening salvo in SIIA's aggressive program to litigate against software pirates. The litigation program is designed to "establish a much greater level of deterrence" for people selling pirated software on auction sites because programs like eBay’s Verified Rights Owner program haven't done the job. SIIA filed three suits in May and two others last November. Look for several more suits in coming months.