Microsoft takes piracy action to High Court

A firm based in Dublin claimed at the High Court yesterday it had been the victim of a publicity campaign to eliminate computer piracy. Brightpoint Ireland, whose parent company is a Delaware-based corporation, resisted an application by computer giant Microsoft and Symantec for an order, continuing pending the outcome of legal proceedings, restraining it from making use of unlicensed software in its business.

Mr Justice Smyth reserved judgment on the application and said he would deliver his decision sometime next week.

Brightpoint has denied it is involved in any software piracy and says this claim is based on untrue allegations made by a disaffected former employee.

It claims this former employee was charged with responsibility for ensuring Brightpoint met its licensing obligations but was not competent to meet his obligations.

It claims the former employee had not disclosed in an affidavit that he had been told that, while some licences may not be available, this was because they had been mislaid or lost, not because they had not been obtained.

On June 2nd last, Microsoft secured a High Court order - effectively a civil search warrant - entitling it to go to Brightpoint's premises at Western Business Park, Dublin, to see if the company was engaged in software piracy. It examined certain material from Brightpoint.

Brightpoint complains the civil search order was publicised by the plaintiffs and the Business Software Association (a trade association of some of the largest software publishers and distributors) and that its reputation has been gravely damaged as a result. It claims to be a reputable company which could not countenance taking the risk of operating with unlicensed software and says it has striven at all times to meet its obligations regarding software licensing.

It seeks an order striking out the June 2nd order. It also claims the publication of that June 2nd order by the plaintiffs is contempt of court and has sought orders for the attachment and committal of a solicitor acting for the plaintiffs and also for the chairman of BSA (Ireland), Mr Conor Molloy.

Microsoft claims Brightpoint is still not meeting all of its licensing obligations and contends the interlocutory order sought will impose no hardship given the defendant's commitment to meet all the licensing requirements. The court was told of Micro soft's concerns at the levels of software piracy worldwide and in Ireland. It was stated that the computer industry lost more than £6 billion (€7.6 billion) as a result of piracy in 1999 while in Ireland in the same year, some 51 per cent of all computer software in use here was estimated to be illegal.