Delhi firm asked to pay Rs 30 lakh in damages for using pirated software
- Delhi High Court has directed a Delhi based firm “Chetu” to pay Rs 30 lakhs as damages to Microsoft Corporation, Adobe Systems and Quest Software for using unlicensed / pirated software programs on its computers of these companies.
- The damage amount will be shared equally by Microsoft Corporation, Adobe Systems and Quest Software, the court said.
- Chetu is based in Delhi’s Nehru Place, India’s largest market for IT products. The company provided IT services and solutions to its clients and related parties.
- The high court restrained Chetu, its principal officers, directors, agents, franchisees, servants, and all others acting for and on its behalf from directly or indirectly using for any kind of computer-related activities or otherwise, pirated/counterfeit/unlicensed software of the Plaintiffs (Microsoft Corporation, Adobe Systems and Quest Software).
- The plaintiffs in its lawsuit said that they hired an independent investigator to investigate Chetu’s activities.
- During the investigation, it was found that there were around 300 computer systems at Chetu, which are operating on software programs such as Microsoft Office and there was no installation of Open Office on any of the computer systems.
- It was further revealed that 40 to 50 employees at the firm were working on software programs such as Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Flash, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe CS3 and Adobe Reader.
- Chetu claimed in the court that it was a fully licensed Microsoft certified old partner since 2003 and its use of Microsoft products is governed by the terms of the Microsoft Partner Network Agreement.
- However, when the companies conducted a license check within their database, it revealed that there were no substantial licences purchased in the name of the defendant or its related parties.
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