Technical software giant Autodesk has won a case against Adelaide-based firm Ginos Engineers, forcing the company to pay damages of $76,000 for pirated software.
The case, which commenced in August 2007, saw Autodesk allege that Ginos Engineers used 27 unlicensed copies of Autodesk software, including AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT. On 19 January, the Federal Court ruled in favour of Autodesk, and ordered Ginos Engineers to pay $76,000 in damages for unlicensed software use over 10 years.
"As the court pointed out in this case, an infringer gains an 'entirely undeserved profit' through the use of unlicensed software," said Hanspeter Eiselt, managing director of Autodesk Australia, in a statement.
"The software in question was necessary for Ginos to run its business ... clearly Autodesk was entitled to benefit through the purchase of additional licences," Eiselt said.
The company said that Autodesk made numerous attempts to resolve the matter before commencing legal action in August 2007, and Eiselt said that "taking legal action is always a last resort".
However, Zis Ginos, proprietor of Ginos Engineers said that "we did make a significant offer to settle the matter before any proceedings ... the offer was as much as they were awarded for damages, but they weren't even interested in responding."
"It was very strange that there was no response, and no intentions of settling in this case," Ginos said.
Why didn't they just buy the extra licences in the first place. It would ahve saved them a lot of money and aggravation.