$525,000 Penalty Collected for Software Piracy

By Karen Kaplan

Jan. 15, 1999 12 AM PT

The Business Software Alliance, a trade group representing software developers, said it collected a $525,000 settlement from Oriental Trading Co. for its use of hundreds of copies of unlicensed software made by Microsoft Corp., Novell Inc. and Symantec Corp. The penalty payment is the largest that the Washington-based group has ever collected from a U.S. company, said Bob Kruger, the alliance’s vice president for enforcement. As part of the settlement, Oriental Trading agreed to delete the unlicensed software on its computers and purchase replacement copies. Catherine Williams, a spokeswoman for the Omaha-based catalog retailer, said the piracy took place because the company “needed software quickly due to rapid growth.” The alliance was tipped off by a call to its anti-piracy hotline in late 1997. The settlement money will fund further anti-piracy efforts, Kruger said.

Technology and the Internet

Karen Kaplan

Karen Kaplan covers science and medical research for the Los Angeles Times. She has been a member of the science team since 2005, including 13 years as an editor. Her first decade at The Times was spent covering technology in the Business section as both a reporter and editor. She grew up in San Diego and is a graduate of MIT and Columbia University.

$525,000 Penalty Collected for Software Piracy

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