Sapna 29 March 2023

Objection to copyright infringement

I have been using only licensed software for all my projects in my company. Out of the blue a software vendor sent me legal notice accusing of copyright infringement of one of their software. Vendor shared a MAC ID and my company email on it. Upon investigation, I found out that one of the employees had downloaded a pirated copy of the software on his personal laptop for learning. Due to a certain emergency I had to allow him to use company email on his personal laptop for a couple of hours to respond to an urgent email. The software vendor shared with me on phone that he had been tracking that MAC ID for a while but as there is no point going after Gmail email ID he was waiting for a corporate email to get association on the MAC ID. Now the vendor is accusing my company of copyright infringement even though the MAC ID does not belong to my company and insisting that I purchase the highly expensive software.

How do I object to this? Am I liable?

I already have firewalls installed to limit employees from any authorised downloads.

Also, can the vendor limit me from using their other software that I have licenses of?

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4 Replies

Real Soul.... (LEGAL) 29 March 2023

Just reply the notice and clarify that your company never used the software, and they must show that IP address using the software belonging to company. Just inform them the company neither need nor use any such software.

Rama chary Rachakonda (Secunderabad/Highcourt practice watsapp no.9989324294 ) 29 March 2023

Downloading or uploading copyrighted work without authority constitutes an infringement. Willful copyright infringement can result in criminal penalties including imprisonment of up to five years and fines of up to $250,000 per offense. Copyright infringement can also result in civil judgments.

Pallavi Singh 29 March 2023

Hi,

Read your query, you need to respond to the infringement notice, by informing the software company that the infringing device was never associated with your company and was a personal device of your employee. further, since your employee was using the software for personal use and not for your company-related work purposes there would not be any copyright infringement from your company's end, and there would be no liability on you.
Lastly, no the vendor can not stop you from using your other licensed software.