Chinese steel firm settles software piracy lawsuits

BEIJING - Software makers Microsoft Corp, Adobe Systems Inc and Autodesk Inc have reached an out-of-court settlement with a Chinese steel structure engineering company on three separate copyright infringement lawsuits, according to the industry group Business Software Alliance (BSA).

"This marks yet another copyright protection triumph achieved by the Business Software Alliance along with three of its member companies," the business group said in a news release on Monday.

A court in Guangzhou's Nansha district in May last year accepted the lawsuits filed by the software companies.

Under the settlement agreement, Guangzhou Wuyang Steel Structure Co, a subsidiary of Shenzhen-listed Zhejiang Southeast Space Frame Co, will pay a total of 1.3 million yuan ($197,937) to the US companies. The settlement amount includes the purchase of authorized software products from the companies and the payment of an undisclosed amount for financial damages, BSA said.

"We will replace all pirated software in our company within a week," said an official from Wuyang Steel Structure, who declined to be identified. Microsoft declined to comment while Adobe and Autodesk could not be reached for comment immediately.

The use of pirated software is widespread in China and US software companies are trying hard to curtail the practice.

According to the market research company International Data Corporation (IDC), the piracy rate of personal computer software in China was 79 percent in 2009, 1 percentage point lower than 2008.

In 2009, the estimated losses to the industry touched $7.6 billion, double the figure from four years ago, according to the research report.

China, therefore, has been increasing its efforts to fight software piracy, part of which included a six-month campaign to crack down on products which infringed on intellectual property rights, and an inspection of central and local governments to ensure the use of copyrighted software.

According to figures from the Government Offices Administration of the State Council, the central government purchased copyrighted software worth 41.4 million yuan between October and Feb 10 this year.

If the piracy rate of China's personal computer software were reduced by 10 percentage points by 2013, 250,000 new high-tech jobs would be created, in addition to increased revenues of $16 billion and taxes of $4.4 billion, IDC said in a separate report late last year.

China Daily

(China Daily 03/09/2011 page15)