The Federal Court of Australia has ordered a group of backyard PlayStation game pirates to pay Sony Computer Entertainment Australia AU$208,000 bringing over a year of litigation to an end.
The order was handed down by Justice Lindgren after the court completed its account of profit assessment late last week. Lindgren found that Barry Jakopcevic, who ran the piracy operation from his home in the Melbourne suburb of Cranbourne, had infringed Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) Australia's copyrights last year.
SCE has described Jakopcevic as a "major pirate" of PlayStation software, and keen to hold the case up as an example, is touting the outcome as one of the greatest victories it has attained during its three-year anti-piracy campaign.
"We applaud Justice Lindgren's decision because it sends a strong message to potential software pirates that they can no longer get off lightly if they steal a company's intellectual property," SCE Australia managing director, Michael Ephraim, said in a statement.
In carrying out the case, SCE Australia's civil investigation team executed civil search warrants on Jakopcevic's house and used sophisticated computer forensic techniques to recover evidence from his hard drive.
According to SCE Australia's legal representatives, Allens Arthur Robinson (AAR), the sum is the largest ever awarded to the company on the basis of an account of profits. The next highest sum ever awarded to the company was around AU$150,000 won through an out-of-court settlement with an unnamed entity.
The court ordered Jakopevic, and two associates, to pay SCE Australia's court costs. However, it is unclear whether that includes those costs involved with conducting the investigation against the trio.
Good for Australia! Now they need to show our U.S. law enforcement guys how to do it too. That is, if Ashcroft can ever his get head out of his a**.