A federal court has granted Microsoft Corporation default judgment against two PC Village businesses and two individuals associated with the businesses in an action for copyright and trade-mark infringement. Microsoft’s investigators had purchased computers from two separate PC Village locations. The judge found that one computer contained seven unauthorized Microsoft software programs, while the other had eight.
Archive for July, 2009
Microsoft Wins Substantial Damages Award for Unauthorized Distribution of its Software
July 28th, 2009The Pirate Bay – Operators Fined for Aiding and Abetting Copyright Infringement
July 28th, 2009 In what is being heralded as a victory for copyright holders, a Swedish district court has found four operators of the file-sharing service The Pirate Bay guilty of aiding and abetting copyright infringement, fined them US$3.6 million, and sentenced each to a year in prison.
The defendants were involved in the operation of The Pirate Bay, reportedly one of the world’s largest bittorrent-tracking website. According to the court, users could upload and store torrent files on the Pirate Bay website as well as search the site’s database for torrent files to download. The service also had a tracker function, which allowed users to contact each other to share the recording or work to which the torrent file referred.
The judge found that The Pirate Bay’s server contained torrent files that related to copyright-protected works and that some of its site’s users used The Pirate Bay’s service to unlawfully share these materials. Therefore, the judge concluded that those users had breached the Swedish Copyright Act and were guilty of copyright infringement.
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