A Dip in Software Piracy

Manisha Singh Nair
Lex Orbis

A recent survey on piracy released by the Business Software Alliance (BSA) shows that there has been a fall in piracy in India. The survey notes that there was significant progress made in the battle against PC software piracy in 2007. Of the 108 countries studied, the piracy rate had dropped in 67 countries and increased in only eight. India's piracy rate dropped two percentage points to 69% in 2007 from 71% in 2006 as a result of government and industry education and enforcement efforts, software vendor activation controls and an increase in the PC market share by multinational vendors.

An illustration of the above scenario can be found in the Delhi High Court's decision in Microsoft Corporation v Rajendra Pawar & Another 2008 (36) PTC 697 (Del). The Court decreed the suit by awarding damages to the plaintiff in the sum of Rs. 20 Lakhs payable by the defendants jointly and severally.

Microsoft Corporation, the plaintiff, filed a suit for permanent injunction, delivery up, rendition of accounts and damages against the defendants for infringement of copyrights, infringement of trademarks and passing off. The suit was the result of the plaintiff's discovery of the defendant carrying on the business of unauthorized hard disk loading. The defendant was pre-loading various pieces of software belonging to the plaintiff on to the hard disks of the computers that were being assembled and sold by it.