Healthcare Firm Hit With Software Piracy Fine

A healthcare training supplies firm has been forced to pay more than £19,000, after it was found to be using unlicensed Microsoft and Adobe software by the Business Software Alliance.

OCB Media Limited specialises in producing medical training systems for healthcare professionals. The Leicester-based firm agreed a £7,800 settlement with the BSA, and also purchased licenses for ongoing use of the software, to the tune of £11,500.

“Although OCB Media Limited cooperated fully with the process, this case shows that businesses that fail to comply with software copyright legislation are increasingly vulnerable to legal action,” said Michala Wardell, chair of the BSA UK Committee. The abuse of intellectual property rights is a serious offence and we want to make it clear that the use of unlicensed software will not be accepted.”

Cost of software piracy

A report released in September 2010 by the BSA and IDC claimed the UK could be missing out on £5.4 billion in new economic activity by 2013 due to software piracy. The report said that reducing software theft in the UK by 10 percent over four years would also create 13,011 high-tech jobs and £1.5 billion in new taxes.

However, the report was met with widespread scepticism from within the ICT industry. “It’s disappointing, when we are keen to have a serious and informed debate on piracy, that the BSA are still trotting out this sort of transparent propaganda,” said Andrew Robinson, leader of the UK Pirate Party, at the time.

A report by the US Government Accountability Office, published last year, also revealed that many of the claims made about the damage piracy causes to the economy could not be substantiated “due to the absence of underlying studies”.

Meanwhile, the European Parliament has adopted a resolution approving the final draft of the controversial ACTA trade agreement, designed to counter intellectual property infringement. The agreement requires nations to include border searches, injunctions and fines in their enforcement measures, as well as the seizure of equipment used in suspected infringement activities.

The treaty has been criticised for going too far, and also for the secretive way in which the text was negotiated, with publication of drafts beginning only near the end of the process. ACTA will be subject to one more vote in the European Parliament before it is passed.

The exposure of a Leicester-based firm will at least take some of the heat off Birmingham, which was labelled a piracy hotspot in September.