Australian Police Wanted For Mass Software Piracy

Micro Focus has accused the New South Wales Police of breaching a licensing agreement and engaging in mass software piracy.

The UK-based software company uncovered unauthorised inter-agency sharing of its ViewNow software, used in NSW Police’s COPS (Computerised Operational Police System) criminal intelligence database, in 2010 and is now suing the law enforcement department for at least AUD$10 million (£6.4m) in damages.

Police blunder

Bruce Craig, the Australasian managing director of Micro Focus, first discovered the piracy when responding to a request from the NSW Ombudsman’s Office who claimed to be using the COPS database. This request then led to an investigation by the company which discovered broad copying and sharing of the software between law enforcement departments, ABC Australia reports.

“When someone pirates your software you think who am I going to call, the police?” Craig said to 7.30. “In this case, they’re the pirates.”

Micro Focus’ investigation found that 16,000 devices were using ViewNow, breaching the 6,500 license limit laid out in an agreement with NSW Police. Additionally, the software had been shared with the Ombudsman’s Office, Department of Corrective Services and the Police Integrity Commission all without being paid for.

Bruce Craig told ABC that the police had been stalling since the extent of the piracy had been revealed. He added that NSW Police claimed to have lost the agreement.

Furthermore, in attempting to get rid of the offending ViewNow software from their systems, the Department of Corrective Service allegedly installed a pirated version of a NetManage Applet, owned by Micro Focus and provided to them by NSW Police.

“What’s incredible is that they’ve gone to any length to try and avoid discovery of what’s being used in there,” Craig said to 7.30. “They’ve been continually deleting our product; they need to replace it with something. And that they’ve replaced it with another license they have no right to use, it’s just astonishing.”

NSW Police denied pirating the NetManage Applet and said it would defend itself in court.

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