So you’ve just set up your company, and working at acquiring clients, you pounce on the phone as soon as it rings/ rush to the door at the prospect of a new client walking through the doors. Not all calls and visits may be pleasant. I’ve listed out two situations below which just might fall under that category.

Situation A – You receive phone calls from a person stating that they represent a major software company [Microsoft, Adobe for instance] questioning the authenticity of the products you use in your workspace.

Situation B – A group of people arrive at your office to conduct audit and collect evidence of alleged use of pirated software of the company.

Your work comes to standstill and even worse, you’re told you won’t be allowed to generate back-up copies of your work. All your machines will be seized for containing unlicensed software.

Suddenly, you will find that you are put in a situation that poses immense threat to the goodwill you generated. A settlement offer is in place from the so called Tech-giants and you are pushed to presume that you have no other way but to accept the settlement offer however unfair it is.

The first thing you need to realize is that using pirated copies of software is illegal and using them opens you up to face a claim of copyright infringement.

With that in mind, if you are using licensed versions and have employees who bring their own devices and are uncertain of those licenses, there are certain things you can do to ensure you don’t get bulldozed through.

Authority:

If you get a call from a company claiming to represent someone, you are well within your rights to ask for authorization and for evidence that they have the right to question you on this.

Now, when there are group of persons outside your workspace to do a site audit, do you have to let them in?

The answer is in negative, in case they don’t have proper authorization from the appropriate Court.  Yes, if they have a proper authorization or a Court Order from the appropriate court.

Ask for the Commissioner, who is appointed by the Court, to produce the Court Order which authorizes such search or seizure.

Is the Order against you/your company specifically?

See if the Court order mentions your/your company’s name.

Sometimes the Court Order might not contain your name in it. Well, that’s still legal and such orders are called John Doe Orders. John Doe orders are “cease and desist” orders passed by a court of law against anonymous entity/entities. The rationale is that the person whose threat is not known as they are veiled being many in number backed by unknown identities.

Against infringement of the rights conferred by law, a copyright owner can seek a court order (Anton Pillar Order) for the inspection and removal of the plaintiff’s property in the hands of the defendants. The Court appoints a Local Commissioner who inspects the defendants’ place of business. The Division Bench of the High Court of Delhi in Autodesk Inc. and Anr. v. A.V.T. Shankardass and Anrenumerated issued guidelines for appointment of such Commissioners in software infringement and piracy matters, one of which states that the object of appointment of a Local Commissioner in software piracy matters is not, as much to collect evidence but to preserve and protect the infringing evidence.

Can they seize/seal all the systems?

While the Order obtained from the Court permits only the collection of evidence as to infringement, in many cases, it is alleged that all the equipments of the defendants’ company are seized though these raids, which are carried on by the Local Commissioner appointed by the courts along with the technical experts who work for the Plaintiff.

Legally they have the right only to seize the systems that use the pirated software.

Do you settle for the large amount demanded?

It becomes interesting to take note of a case where a Belgium local printing company Deckers-Snoeck sued Microsoft over such anti-piracy raid. The company was told that all its computers would be taken away for the alleged use of pirated software unless it paid €30,000 in settlement fees. The raid took place in 2003 and after a legal battle spanning over ten years; the Brussels Appeal Court decided that the practices adopted by the Tech-giant were “deceptive.” The printing company won the case and the Court ruled that it was not obliged to pay any damages to the software group.

It will be interesting if any of the local companies engage in legal battle against these Tech-Giants by challenging the manner in which these anti-piracy raids are conducted and also for understanding the scope of the Order passed by the courts in these cases.

Once again while these are things to keep in mind to ensure that the raids are conducted properly, it’s key to remember not to use pirated software. Most of the software companies have discounted/subsidized pricing for Startups/Small & Medium Enterprises and it makes business sense to be on the right side of the law.

If you have purchased the appropriate licenses keep the information safe and recorded so that if such a raid takes place you have easy access to it to rebut the claims and don’t get bullied.

This article has been authored by Madhuram Mohan who is pursuing law at the School of Law, SASTRA University. The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.