The UAE’s Ministry of Information and Culture and the Abu Dhabi Police have stepped up their fight against software piracy, with another raid on an Abu Dhabi based company.
The raid turned up 19 PCs loaded with a variety of illegal software.
It took officials 6 hours to catalogue the number of illegal software copies made, including copies of Autodesk AutoCAD, Adobe Photoshop Microsoft Windows 95 and 98, Microsoft Office, and Coral Draw which were all being illegally used by company officials in their day to day operations.
Both the company manager and the purchasing manager have been detained for further questioning, while the Public Prosecutor has filed a criminal case against the nameless company.
Prison Sentence
Potentially, the company could earn itself a fine of 50,000 Dhs or higher, and incur prison sentences and the closure of the premises.
“Such penalties show that using illegal software is just not a smart business decision,” said Ashok Sharma, Middle East director of the Business Software Alliance.
“We urge business software users to take heed of the copyright laws and take steps to ensure that they are operating their businesses within UAE laws in order to avoid actions such as this,” said Sharma.
For information please go to: www.bsa.org; www.nopiracy.com.
